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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

University  of  California. 

(  rl  FT  OK 


Received  rnmo  .  180 

successions  No . O0y/3    •        Class  No. 


l*tV\) 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/consciousmotherhOOmarwrich 


VAf*  Of  THS 


"Where  there's  movement,  where  there's  action, 

For  the  child's  eye  there 's  attraction ! 

Where  brightness,  melody,  and  measure, 

Its  little  heart  will  throb  with  pleasure. 
Oh !  mothers,  strive  to  keep  these  young;  souls  fresh  and  clear, 
That  order,  truth,  and  beauty  always  may  be  dear !  " 


PA11T  I. 


CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD; 


THE  EAELIEST  UNFOLDING  OF  THE  CHILD  IN  THE  CEADLE, 
NUESEEY,  AND  KINDEEGAETEN. 

BY 

EMMA   MARWEDEL. 


SUPPLEMENTED  BY 

PART  II. 

extract8  from  prof.   w.  preyer's  psycho-physiological 
Investigations  on  his  Own   Child,   called 

THE   SOUL   OF   THE   CHILD. 


^j*"  at  THB 

'PBI7BHSIT7; 


BOSTON; 
D.   C.   HEATH   &  COMPANY. 

1889. 


<rrf/3 

Copyright,  1887, 
By  Emma  Marwedel. 


L&UCJ 

ttrt, 

pAAVv 


gejcticati0tc. 


TO 


MISS    ELIZABETH    P.    PEABODY, 

Introducer  of  FroebeVs  System  to  America, 

G.   STANLEY  HALL, 

Professor  of  Educational  Science  at  Johns  Hopkins  University 
and  Harvard  College, 

AND  TO  THE   MEMORY  OF 

MRS.   HORACE  MANTNT, 

I  DEDICATE   THIS  RESULT   OP  MY  LIFE-WORK  IN   THE  CAUSE 
TO   WHICH   WE  ARE  ALL  DEVOTED. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS   OF   PART  I. 


PAGE 

PREFACE 11 

CHAPTER  I. 

Development    of     Conscious     Motherhood     into     its     Ideal, 

"Sacred    Motherhood" 17 

CHAPTER  IT. 
Union  of  Both  Sexes  in  Ideal  Parenthood 36 

CHAPTER   III. 

The  Child's  Right  to  ax  Early  Educational  Unfolding, 
beginning  at  the  cradle,  based  on  a  scientific  concep- 
TION of  the  Child's  Nature 78 

CHAPTER    IV. 
Development  of  and  through  the  Sexses 101 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Child's  Earliest  Conception  of  Comfort  and  Discomfort 

developing  Emotions 135 

CHAPTER   VI. 

Emotions  leading  to  Power  of  Will  and  Individual  Activ- 
ities   158 

CHAPTER  VII. 

The  Child's  Individual  Activity  developing  Reasoning  Facul- 
ties, without  the  Use  of  Language 192 


A 

8  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Gradual  Steps  of  learning  to  Speak,   and  how  to  use 

Speech 210 

CHAPTER    IX. 
Development  of  Selfhood 219 

CHAPTER    X. 
The  Ideal  Nursery  .        .        .        .       .  oos 


PART    I. 


Okmsricws    HXtrtteftood ; 


OR, 


THE  CHILD'S  EARLIEST  UNFOLDING  IN  THE  CRADLE,  NURSERY, 
AND  KINDERGARTEN,  PRACTICALLY  ILLUSTRATED. 


foirivBitsiii 


PEEFACE 


In  the  year  1876,  in  sending  my  kindergarten  and 
normal  class  work  from  Washington,  D.  C,  to  the 
government  exhibit  at  Philadelphia,  I  gave  utterance  to 
a  long-cherished  conviction  of  my  own,  that  the  ball,  as 
representing  the  sphere,  the  type  of  all  life,  was  not 
made  sufficiently  prominent  in  Froebel's  development 
of  the  child. 

Ever  since  that  time  —  now  a  decade  — this  conviction 
has  been  active  within  me,  until  I  have  at  length 
wrought  it  out,  with  the  full  force  of  my  reason  and 
experience,  to  a  practical  result. 

I  do  not  wish,  however,  to  create  the  impression  that 
my  theory  is  an  entirely  new  one ;  the  fact  being  rather 
that  it  extends  and  systematizes  the  idea  of  the  curve 
contained  in  Froebel's  teachings,  and  which  was  so 
clearly  suggested  by  W.  Guillaume  at  the  International 
Educational  Congress  at  Brussels,  1880.* 

By  1882,  my  thoughts  were  so  far  crystallized  that 
they  were  ready  to  be  presented  in  the  tangible  form  of, 
"A  Circular  Drawing  System,  or  Childhood's  Poetry  and 

*  See  Henry  Barnard's  Child  Culture. 


12  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Study  in  the  Life  and  Forms  of  Nature."  (Supplemented 
with  a  botany  and  seventeen  classification  charts  of  four 
feet  square,  in  relief.) 

The  North  American  Froebel  Institute,  meeting  at 
Detroit  in  1882,  to  which  able  body  I  disclosed  my 
plan,  gave  me  its  unqualified  approval,  and  urged  the 
speedy  publication  of  my  work  in  a  series  of  resolutions, 
which  had,  however,  been  anticipated  by  the  indorse- 
ment of  such  prominent  educators  as  Profs.  Eugene 
W.  Hilgard,  G.  Stanley  Hall,  and  Joseph  Le  Conte,  to 
whom,  on  account  of  their  intelligent  sympathy  and 
their  friendly  and  active  co-operation  in  my  plans,  I 
can  scarcely  exaggerate  the  expression  of  my  gratitude. 
And  I  cannot  omit  acknowledging  the  practical  kind- 
ness of  the  Chicago  Free  Kindergarten  Association  and 
the  Board  of  the  Pioneer  Kindergarten  Association. 

The  resolutions  referred  to  were  as  follows  :  — 

Resolved,  1st.  That  while  we,  as  professed  disciples  of 
Froebel,  deprecate  all  departures  from  the  great  fundamental 
principles  laid  down  by  him  for  the  culture  and  development  of 
the  child's  nature,  yet  we  hail  with  delight  all  discoveries  of 
new  applications  of  his  philosophy,  whereby  we  can  better 
adjust  its  force  to  the  educational  wants  of  the  age,  believing 
that  truth  has  all-sided  growth,  and  an  adaptation  suited  to  the 
changed  condition  of  its  subjects ;  therefore  we  welcome  with 
pleasure  the  application  of  the  curved  lines  representing  all 
forms,  vegetable  and  animal,  as  embodied  in  the  system  just 
brought  to  our  notice  by  Miss  Marwedel,  of  San  Francisco, 
thereby  giving  larger  scope  and  greater  pleasure  to  the  chief 


PREFACE.  13 

thought,  while  tracing  the  handiwork  of  the  Master  Builder  of 
the  universe. 

Resolved,  2d.  That  the  committee,  feeling  that  an  ex- 
tended knowledge  of  Miss  Marwedel's  application  of  FroebePs 
method  will  be  of  great  use  to  children  in  the  school  as  well 
as  in  the  kindergarten,  urge  the  publication  of  her  book,  which 
will  also  contain  directions  and  suggestions  to  use  these  forms, 
and,  if  necessary,  that  the  North  American  Froebel  Union  be 
requested  to  assist  Miss  Marwedel  in  any  way  in  its  power. 

Besolved,  3d.  That  a  committee  be  appointed  to  confer,  if 
necessary,  with  publishers  of  Miss  Marwedel's  book. 

In  pursuance  of  the  third  resolution,  a  committee  on 
publication  was  appointed  as  follows  :  Miss  Elizabeth  P. 
Peabody,  Mrs.  Horace  Mann,  J.  W.  Dickinson,  J.  M. 
B.  Sill,  and  W.  N.  Hailman. 

But  with  all  this  encouragement,  supplemented  as  it  was 
with  the  logic  of  my  development  of  the  curve,  and  by 
W.  T.  Harris's  argument,  I  was  still  unsatisfied.  I  felt 
that  I  bad  not  yet  touched  the  right  spot  in  human  exist- 
ence, whereon  to  base  the  fair  structure  of  human  educa- 
tion. Thought  upon  thought  drove  me  back  over  the 
steps  the  human  being  traces  in  his  ascent  to  manhood.  I 
reached  the  home,  the  mother,  the  cradle  !  Here,  at  last, 
in  the  mother,  to  whom  Froebel  dedicated  the  first  use  of 
the  curve,  I  found  the  place  where  the  corner-stone  of  any 
genuine  education  must  be  laid.  But  where  to  find  that 
stone  which  should  become  "  the  head  of  the  corner  "  ? 

A  remarkable  book  —  the  first  of  its  kind  in  range  and 


14  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

\ 

profundity  —  fell  into  ray  hands  at  this  period.  It  was 
the  work  entitled  "The  Soul  of  the  Child,"  by  Prof. 
Wilhelm  Preyer,  of  Jena ;  received  by  me  as  a  providen- 
tial answer  to  my  question.  And  this  book,  which 
answers,  not  my  question  only,  but  every  query  as  to 
the  when,  and  the  how,  and  the  wherefore,  which 
mothers  and  all  other  educators  ask  concerning  the  ear- 
liest /physical,  mental,  and  moral  needs  of  the  child, 
seemed  to  me  a  boon  which  should  not  be  willingly  with- 
held for  one  single  hour  from  those  upon  whom  are 
laid  grave  responsibilities  from  the  first  day. 

It  has  been  a  difficult  and  a  necessarily  imperfect 
task  to  extract  from  a  strictly  scientific  work  such 
portions  as  would  best  serve  to  enlighten  and  direct  the 
mother  in  her  double  function  of  nurse  and  educator; 
but  I  felt  that,  however  roughly  the  stone  might  be 
hewn,  it  was  nevertheless  the  needed  corner-stone,  with- 
out which  the  superstructure  could  not  be  erected. 

Another  Kindergarten  Congress  and  Exhibit,  at  Madi- 
son, Wisconsin,  in  the  summer  of  1884,  brought  my 
Circular  Drawing  System  again  before  the  public,  and 
showed  such  renewed  interest  as  gave  promise  of  general 
adoption.  The  Chicago  Free  Kindergarten  Association 
and  the  Cook  County  Normal  School  (under  the  prin- 
cipalship  of  Col.  Francis  W.  Parker)  induced  me  to 
give  explanatory  lectures  on  my  Circular  System  of 
Drawing,  a  task  which  I  performed  with  delight,  as  I 
had  become    fully   assured  of  the   instructive    pleasure 


PREFACE.  15 

and  creative  impetus  imparted  by  this  method  to  chil- 
dren, even  from  the  age  of  four  years. 

This  completes  the  history  of  this  volume  of  my 
work.  The  third  and  fourth  parts  are  but  the  natural 
and  logical  result  of  the  other  two,  and  will  follow  as 
soon  as  possible.  Having  found  the  cradle  to  be  the 
right  spot  wherein  to  begin  education,  a  knowledge  of 
the  nature  of  the  inhabitant  of  the  cradle  was  found 
to  be  necessary  to  that  beginning.  This  presupposed  a 
knowledge  of  the  mother  and  of  motherhood,  which 
make  the  first  and  second  parts  of /my  work.  Thus  the 
book  in  all  its  parts  leads,  like  a  circle,  back  to  its 
starting-point  —  from  the  commencement  of  life  in  the 
child  to  the  creation  of  life  in  the  mother. 

But  the  task,  as  a  whole,  is  one  I  should  not  have 
ventured  to  undertake,  were  not  the  book,  after  all, 
The  Child's  Book,  and  its  creation  due  to  my  living 
with  children. 

It  reflects  the  many  sacred  hours  spent  in  watching  and 
directing  the  unfolding  of  their  budding  souls,  and  in 
loving  study  of  their  educational  needs.  It  reflects  also 
a  thousand  divine  sparks  of  childhood's  purity,  poetry, 
righteousness,  and  reason ;  its  devotion  to  duty,  and  its 
hitherto  so  much  unappreciated  altruism.  My  inspi- 
ration in  writing  this  book  has  been,  sympathy  with 
the  mother  in  her  immeasurable  responsibility ;  the  con- 
dition of  childhood's  rights  to  justice  and  happiness;  and 
finally,  an  abiding  faith  in  the  mental  and  physical  evolu- 

|Uiri7EItSIT7i 


16  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

tion  of  the  race.     So  let  me  hope  that  it  will  lead  the 

mother  and  the  educator,  as   it  did  me,  inward  to  the 

depths  of  the  nature  of  the  child,  and  onward  with  the 

child. 

Emma  Marwedel. 

San  Francisco,  May,  1887. 


P.  S.  — This  seems  to  be  the  proper  place  to  express 
my  most  deeply  felt  gratitude  to  those  who  crowned  my 
work  in  its  embryo  with  their  sympathetic  co-opera- 
tion and  faith,  in  the  spirit  of  true  sisterhood.  They  are 
my  two  most  unselfish  acting  revisers,  Mrs.  M.  G.  Camp- 
bell and  Mrs.  A.  I.  Toomey,  the  late  Mrs.  Horace  Mann, 
Miss  E.  P.  Peabody,  Mrs.  Eobert  Fowler,  Mrs.  A.  P. 
Kelley,  Mrs.  E.  G.  Greene,  Miss  Kate  Atkinson,  and 
many  others ;  not  to  undervalue  the  document  of  the 
Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  promising  to  favor 
my  aim  of  awakening 

"Conscious  Motherhood." 


V 


CHAPTER  I. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF   CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD   INTO  ITS 
IDEAL,  "  SACRED  MOTHERHOOD," 

I.  Introductory.  —  II.  Woman  as  a  Mother  and  first  Educator  :  (a)  Among 
the  Ancients;  (6)  Among  her  Contemporaries.  —  III.  The  Growth  of 
Woman's  Social  Eesponsibility. 

I.    INTRODUCTORY. 

Of  all  that  connects  man  with  life,  that  is,  his  inner 
with  his  outer  world,  the  child  stands  nearest  to  him.  It 
reflects  the  sacred  unity  of  manhood  and  womanhood  no 
less  than  the  unity  of  his  own  manhood  and  childhood. 
National  customs  and  festivals,  the  tributes,  joyous  or 
solemn,  dedicated  to  the  child  at  its  birth,  are  in  keeping 
with  the  poetry  and  the  ideal  of  the  age.  They  measure 
the  stage  of  progress  of  man  at  each  period.  The  child  is 
man's  civilizer,  purifier,  and  redeemer.  The  child's  first 
mission  opens  with  its  helplessness,  which  is  its  great 
silent  claim  to  be  saved  from  the  evils  under  which  it  is 
born,  and  from  which  it  suffers  while  passing  through  life. 
There  is  the  same  unspoken  appeal,  whether  the  child  be 
placed  on  the  soft  pillow  of  fine  linen,  in  the  subdued 
light  and  aroma  of  luxury,  or  whether  it  be  on  the  worn- 
out,  old-fashioned  quilt  on  the  stormy  shores  of  the  sea,  or 
at  the  foot  of  the  rugged  mountain ;  this  is  the  appeal  for 


18  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

a  recognition  of  its  rights  to  a  natural  development  of 
its  higher  being.  Conditioned  by  numerous  limitations, 
such  as  rank,  custom,  religion,  etc.,  man  unconsciously 
becomes  the  type  of  his  time.  How  the  portrait  of  the 
man  who  shall  typify  our  race  will  look  on  the  pages  of 
history  we  shall  not  know,  for  our  eyes  will  be  dust 
when  it  is  drawn ;  but  we  know  that  the  characteristic 
of  the  nineteenth  century  is  a  craving  for  truth,  an  in- 
sight into  the  uniformity  of  organic  law,  and  a  growing 
courage  to  admit  unflinchingly  all  its  conclusions  and 
applications.  Man  not  only  puts  the  almost  invisible 
parasite  and  worm  under  the  microscope,  but  he  sub- 
jects himself  to  the  same  minute  investigation. 

With  the  higher  education  granted  of  late  to  woman,  she 
has  proved  her  capacity  to  compete  with  man  for  honor 
and  for  bread ;  but  in  doing  this,  she  has  only  entered 
upon  a  general  course  of  instruction  which  makes  no  pro- 
vision for  her  special  and  natural  vocation.  For  this 
vocation  her  training  should  embrace  anthropology,  physi- 
ology, and  hygiene,  psychology,  pedagogics,  history  of 
law,  and  ethics,  and  finally  a  thorough  course  of  Froebel's 
system,  theoretically  and  practically.  Some  one,  per- 
haps, will  say  this  is  too  much  science  and  elaboration  for 
the  simple  function  of  motherhood. 

We  ask,  Is  motherhood  simpler  than  eating  and  drink- 
ing and  breathing?  The  preparation  of  our  food  is 
brought  under  the  scientific  analysis  of  the  laboratory. 
The   cutting   and   fitting   of    our  garments  are  subordi- 


INTRODUCTORY.  19 

nated  to  the  principles  of  physiology.  Ventilation, 
sleep,  recreation,  are  presided  over  by  science.  Agri- 
culture, forestry,  fish  culture,  stock  breeding,  all  are 
carried  on  upon  scientific  principles.  Beginning  with 
comparative  studies  of  the  life,  habits,  and  heredity  in  the 
improvement  of  plants  and  animals  ?  increasing  knowl- 
edge of  the  laws  of  matter  and  mind  as  evinced  in  the 
complex  operations  of  labor  in  an  ant-hill ;  of  intelligent 
obedience  and  co-operation  in  a  bee-hive  ;  of  adaptation 
of  means  to  ends  in  the  beaver,  the  dog,  the  elephant,  — 
all  these  form  the  ascending  steps  in  the  knowledge 
which  is  auxiliary  to  the  anthropological  science  of  man, 
and  to  right  methods  in  human  education.  Are,  then, 
the  pre-natal  formation  of  man,  his  first  physical,  mental, 
and  moral  unfolding,  the  harmony  between  his  inner 
nature  and  the  outer  world,  the  integrity  of  his  char- 
acter, the  education  of  his  will,  the  early  conception 
of  the  individual  and  social  relation  as  a  part  of  the 
whole,  less  valuable  than  cooking  and  breathing  accord- 
ing to  chemico-vital  laws?  Is  the  truth  we  seek  for 
man  the  only  truth  exempt  from  scientific  requirements  ? 
Is  woman's  moral  and  physical  relation  to  her  child  not 
to  be  adjusted  by  the  same  laws  which  control  the  uni- 
verse, from  the  star  to  the  atom?  Love  will  not  Jet 
itself  be  harnessed  in  a  yoke  with  Science,  but  Affection 
and  Duty  are  willing  to  sit  at  its  feet  and  learn,  and 
woman  must  reach  toward  the  ideal  through  the  prac- 
tical.    She  must  learn  to  glory  in  her  real  relations  to 


20  CONSCIOU8   MOTHERHOOD. 

a  real  world,  rather  than  in  those  that  have  existed  for 
her  in  sentimental  ignorance,  poetry,  and  chivalry. 

The  poetry  of  all  ages  has  deified  the  wife  and  mother, 
making  her  the  sole  spring  of  all  life  and  earthly  happi- 
ness, the  source  of  man's  strongest  and  purest  emotion 
and  thought ;  and  the  union  of  the  mother  and  child  has 
been  crystallized  into  the  symbol  of  all  that  is  divinest 
in  human  nature.  So  nourished,  it  is  little  wonder  if  the 
young  girl  concludes  that  this  ideal  love  will  solve  every 
problem  into  which  her  relation  to  life  brings  her. 
Crowned  by  a  world  which  lavishes  in  blind  enthusiasm 
its  tribute  to  the  celestial  beauty  of  veiled  hope  and  devo- 
tion, the  loving  bride  lifts  every  flower  thrown  in  her 
path,  accepts  every  wish  that  reaches  her  listening  ear, 
every  whisper  of  friendship,  every  pressure  of  the  hand, 
as  a  token  for  telling  the  endless  days  of  happiness  and 
peace  this  love  will  bring  her,  with  little  return  on  her 
part  save  the  instinctive  feeling  that  she  possesses  a  love 
which  her  dreams  have  idealized.  But  this  is  not  the 
relation  we  seek  for  woman,  this  is  not  the  front  which 
the  nineteenth  century  imperiously  commands  woman  to 
turn  to  the  world.  Once  she  was  called  on  only  to  be 
pure,  to  be  good,  to  neutralize  evil  without  knowing  it, 
to  bless  man  without  understanding  him.  We  assert  that 
a  negative  purity  is  not  communicable,  that  a  passive 
goodness  will  inspire  no  one,  and  that  in  order  to  bless 
man  she  must  know  him.  But  she  must  also  know  her- 
self;  she    must    understand   her    God-ordained   position 


INTRODUCTORY.  21 

among  the  working  forces  of  nature ;  she  must  under- 
stand the  great  and  holy  message  which  she  and  she  alone 
can  deliver  to  the  world.  She  can  no  longer  shut  her 
eyes  without  guilt.  If  she  has  been  mistaught  hitherto, 
she  has  now  the  means  of  teaching  herself  aright,  and  a 
solemn  weight  of  responsibility  will  rest  on  her  hence- 
forth if  she  does  not  fit  herself  for  the  demand  on  her 
intelligence,  her  energy,  her  proper  conception  of  the 
world's  progress  and  needs.  But  she  must  not  think  to 
do  the  highest  work  alone ;  it  is  as  she  joins  herself  to 
man  in  the  interchange  of  virtues  and  in  a  reciprocity  of 
strength  that  she  will  find  herself  most  womanly,  most 
motherly,  most  divine.  We  must  rise  above  the  old 
defining  of  "man's  sphere,  and  woman's  sphere,"  seeing 
in  each  only  a  hemisphere ;  in  man  and  woman  conjoined, 
the  perfect  sphere. 

The  most  prejudiced  judgment  must  admit  that  the 
highest  individual  types  of  mankind  are  found  where 
the  best  qualities  of  both  sexes  are  united  in  one  per- 
son, be  it  man  or  woman.  President  Warren,  of  the 
Boston  University,  in  recommending  co-education,  says : 
"  If  the  aim  be  to  narrow  a  human  being  to  one  small 
function,  isolation  will  be  found  helpful.  If  the  aim  be 
semi-development  of  a  human  being,  semi-isolation  is  by 
all  means  desirable.  On  the  other  hand,  harmonious  all- 
sided  development  demands  harmonious  influences  from 
every  side.  Masculine  influence  alone,  feminine  influ- 
ence  alone,  can   never  produce  the  broadest  and  com- 


22  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

pletest  human  culture.  Only  in  the  full  human  society 
of  men  and  women  can  a  normal  development  of  char- 
acter go  forward.  Where  mental  and  moral  improve- 
ment is  the  earnest  common  purpose,  the  refining  and 
ennobling  influence  of  each  sex  upon  the  other  in  asso- 
ciation can  hardly  be  over-estimated.  It  is  an  elevating 
and  molding  force,  whose  potency  and  value  have  but 
just  begun  to  be  recognized  in  the  higher  education." 
And  this  is  the  force  which,  proceeding  in  orderly  evo- 
lution, is  to  redeem  us  from  our  present  one-sideness, 
narrowness,  and  ignorance. 

II.  WOMAN  AS  A  MOTHER  AND  FIRST  EDUCATOR, 
AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS  AND  AMONG  HER 
CONTEMPORARIES. 

Considering  the  problems  of  civilization,  nothing 
seems  to  stand  more  aloof  from  discussion  than  the  idea 
of  motherhood.  Most  savages  revere  the  physical  union 
existing  between  mother  and  child,  while  our  civiliza- 
tion has  generally  subjected  this  natural  oneness  to  un- 
natural social  regulation.  "  Motherhood "  is  the  ideal 
relation,  remaining  forever  unchanged. 

I  regret  not  to  be  able,  at  present,  to  devote  a  part  of 
this  book  to  the  historic  anthropological  development 
of  conscious  motherhood,  but  I  hope  before  long  to 
present  a  communication,  proving  that  the  primitive 
motherly  emotions,  by  creating  comfort ,  become  the 
source  of  ethical  civilization. 


WOMAN  AS   A   MOTHER.  23 

Among  the  Nicobarosians,  a  tribe  very  far  from  gen- 
eral civilization,  while  the  wife  is  enceinte,  a  devoted 
care  is  lavished  on  her  and  even  on  her  husband,  both 
being  freed  from  labor.  They  enjoy  a  life  of  holidays 
among  their  relations.  Where  they  appear  they  bring 
pleasure  in  the  simplest  hut.  The  best  pig  is  slaugh- 
tered to  be  eaten,  and  the  woman  requested  to  sow 
some  seeds  from  which  especial  fertility  is  expected. 
The  Somalis,  a  negro  tribe  on  the  shore  of  the  Nile,  ex- 
empt a  pregnant  woman  from  all  labor,  bringing  burnt 
offerings  to  the  gods  for  her  well-being,  and  that  of 
the  child.  The  Carthaginians  and  Pannonians  pay  their 
highest  respects  and  care  to  the  coming  mother,  and 
the  bodily  strength  and  beauty  of  the  Teutons  must  be 
attributed  to  the  great  estimation  of  the  special  rights 
granted  to  women  at  the  period  of  the  pre-natal  life  of 
the  child.  The  superstition  surrounding,  at  this  period, 
mother  and  child  evolved  through  all  ages  the  most 
singular  habits.  This  superstition  hangs  still  and  not 
seldom  as  a  heavy  cloud  over  our  heads,  and  nothing 
can  destroy  it  but  a  higher  insight  into  motherhood. 
Mother's  love  was  and  is  predestined  to  kindle  the  lights 
of  life.  Why,  then,  has  not  the  mother  of  the  present 
age,  with  this  recognized  power,  reached  the  self-perfec- 
tion she  feels  herself  entitled  to? 

Let  us  try  to  find  the  reason  for  this  anomaly. 

No  human  mother  is  able  to  ignore  the  similarity 
existing  between  herself  and  the  animal  mother.      The 


>      0?  THK^, 


•** 


oar 


24  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

heroic  self-abnegation  and  ingenious,  loving  care  in  ani- 
mals stand  in  some  degree  parallel  to  human  love  and 
human  social  organization.  The  power  of  leadership  and 
protection  to  weaker  ones,  among  the  wandering  birds 
and  the  elephants,  not  less  among  the  horses,  cattle, 
and  buffaloes  ;  their  selection  of  two  of  the  strongest  ani- 
mals on  each  side  to  fight  for  their  disputed  rights,  in- 
stead of  as  with  men,  who  fight  tribe  against  tribe ;  the 
remarkable  patriarchal  system  among  the  walruses ;  the 
co-operative  actions  of  apes,  of  beavers,  bees,  and  ants, — 
offer  vast  material  for  comparison ;  but  these  are  exclu- 
sively for  their  own  kind,  and  so  far  as  we  are  convinced, 
without  any  distinct  design  to  connect  by  reason,  not 
by  instinct,  the  past  with  the  future,  forming  the  ground 
of  logical  conclusion  for  further  actions.  And  here  we 
find  the  solution  of  the  anomalies  that  prevented  the 
growth  of  conscious  motherhood.  It  rested  on  the  error 
of  accepting  this  instinctive  power  of  motherhood  as  com- 
plete and  sufficient  on  the  error  of  narrowing  her  power 
to  her  own  kind  (family  exclusion),  and  of  preventing 
her  from  connecting  by  reason,  not  by  instinct,  the  pres- 
ent with  the  future,  for  free  individual  conclusion  and 
logical  action ;  condemning  her  instead  to  dependence 
and  ignorance  of  herself  and  her  duties. 

No  woman  in  this  great  Kepublic  is  unaware  of  the 
changes  concerning  her  own  sex  in  the  latter  part  of  this 
century,  and  the  question  arises,  Is  this  change  the 
product  of  modern  or  the  reflex  of  ancient  civilization? 


WOMAN  AS   A  MOTHER.  25 

Woman's  condition  among  the  Hebrews,  as  a  familiar  sub- 
ject through  the  Bible,  has,  in  many  respects,  remained 
unchanged  till  to-day.  The  mother  is  highly  honored 
in  her  special  functions,  and  the  uniformity  of  strictly 
kept  family  love  and  duties  supports  a  moral  condition 
which  bears  its  recognized  fruits.  The  historic  record 
left  us  by  the  Egyptians  and  the  Greeks  widens  in  the 
same  degree  as  nature  and  art  freed  the  woman  from  her 
seclusion  from  the  outer  life  to  the  high  and  vivid  pul- 
sation oifree  individual  creative  forces. 

This  is  clearly  demonstrated  by  their  mythological 
figures  and  attributes,  their  festivals  and  literature. 
The  conception  of  a  humanistic  individual  statesman- 
ship placed  woman's  value,  as  the  bearer  and  raiser  of 
the  coming  citizen,  not  only  on  physical  but  on  intellec- 
tual equality  with  man,  for  the  needed  perfection  of  soul 
and  body. 

It  is  true,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  boy  remained  no 
longer  than  seven  years  among  the  Greeks  and  Egyptians 
under  the  educational  guidance  of  the  mother,  while  the 
girl  remained  with  her,  in  the  inner  part  of  the  hoitse, 
carefully  restricted,  though  she  was  sent  to  school,  the 
gymnasium,  and  lectures.  But  considering  the  care  ex- 
tended to  the  boy,  placed  under  the  constant  educational 
supervision  of  the  so-called  pedagogue,  and  later  watched 
over  by  the  best  men  chosen  for  this  act  of  honor  and 
trust,  to  be  trained  for  the  duties  and  hardships  of  life, 
we  can  but  admit  that  it  was  not  so  much  the  mistrust  in 


26  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

woman's  power,  but  the  aim  to  prepare  the  boy,  from  the 
outset,  practically  and  morally  for  life,  which  separated 
him  from  the  home.  This  is  shown  by  not  allowing  the 
young  boy  to  go  on  the  market,  preventing  his  early 
contact  with  the  debasing  phases  of  life. 

A  work  of  late  by  Jos.  Cal  Poestian,  of  Vienna,  in 
Germany,  aims  to  bring  the  female  Greek  philosophers — 
of  whom  he  mentions  more  than  one  hundred  by  name  and 
character  —  into  an  organic  connection  with  the  history 
of  Greek  philosophy  and  science,  from  which  we  give  the 
following  short  abstract,  as  the  author  desires  distinctly 
that  his  work  might  not  be  limited  to  his  scientific  broth- 
erhood, but  fall  also  into  the  hands  of  women,  devoting  a 
special  chapter  to  the  "courtesans."  According  to  his 
statement,  the  position  of  women  differed  greatly  in 
Greece.  The  women  of  the  Dorians  participated  with 
men  in  literature,  art,  science,  and  statesmanship ;  for 
example,  the  poetess  heroine  Telesilla,  by  placing  herself 
at  the  head  of  the  Argioie,  gained  a  victory  over  the  in- 
vading enemies.  The  author  refers  to  one  hundred  and 
forty-six  distinguished  women,  six  of  them  being  paint- 
ers. Many  women  were  able  to  fill  and  they  filled  the 
chairs  of  philosophy  held  by  their  husbands,  brothers, 
and  fathers.  The  moral,  elevating  intercourse  with  the 
wise  Pythagoras,  his  faith  in  woman's  mental  powers, 
are  illustrated  by  the  actions  and  writings  of  his 
wife,  the  philosopher  Theane,  by  an  educational  letter 
showing   the   strong  demand   for   developing   early  self- 


WOMAN  AS   A  MOTHER.  27 

control,    about   500   or    450    B.    C,  and   reads   as   fol- 
lows :  — 

She  was  distinguished  for  her  beauty,  a  devotional 
love  to  her  husband,  and  her  oratorical  and  literary 
powers.  She  says  :  "I  fear  you  are  spoiling  your  child 
by  caring  too  sentimentally  for  it.  Your  intention  is  to 
be  a  good  mother ;  but,  my  dear  friend,  the  first  duty  of 
a  good  mother  is  not  so  much  to  give  passing  happy  feel- 
ings, as  to  lead  the  child  to  what  lays  the  foundation  for 
a  constant  happiness  by  virtue, — moderating  and  con- 
quering, from  the  beginning, '  sensuous  desires.'  There- 
fore, be  careful  that  your  love  and  devotion  does  not  play 
the  role  of  a  flatterer  or  destroyer,  instead  of  a  builder 
of  its  happiness  through  character.  Children,  from  first 
babyhood  allowed  unrestricted  sensuous  enjoyments, 
will  become  unable  to  resist  the  temptation  of  lower 
pleasures,  so  great  in  after-life.  Your  duty  is  to  educate 
your  children  by  such  means  that  their  natural  gifts  are 
not  turned  in  the  wrong  direction,  which  will  happen  when 
the  desire  for  empty  pleasure  gains  the  upper  hand  in 
their  souls  and  bodies ;  becoming  accustomed  to  enjoy 
only  pleasant  sensations,  —  a  condition  which  leads  to  an 
excessive  effeminacy  of  the  soul  and  body,  in  opposition 
to  moral  efforts  and  labor.  Consequently,  nothing  is 
more  important  than  to  create  right  desires  as  well  as 
overcome  what  children  dislike,  even  when,  for  the  mo- 
ment, they  may  not  see  the  reason,  and  their  feelings 
seem  wounded  ;  for  no  better  remedy  exists  to  free  them 


28  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

from  the  slavery  of  their  own  passions  of  voluptuousness 
and  aversion  than  being  aroused  to  work,  creating  in 
them  desire  and  esteem  for  all  that  is  beautiful  and  noble. 
Therefore,  pray  reform  the  education  of  your  children. 
Expose  them  rather  to  hunger  and  thirst,  heat  and 
cold,  than  leave  them  without  habits  of  self-denial,  self- 
restraint,  and  patience.  The  power  of  endurance  of  labor 
and  submission  to  discomfort  are  for  young  human  beings 
what  a  solution  of  alum  is  for  cloth  to  be  dyed  purple,  — 
the  more  it  has  been  penetrated,  the  deeper  enters  the 
color  of  virtue.  Any  education  which  is  luxurious  and 
effeminate  can  produce  no  other  fruit  than  frivolity  and 
insolence,  and  the  very  opposite  of  every  quality  by 
which  a  human  being  becomes  useful  to  himself  and 
others." 

"  If  you  nourish  your  children  too  richly  and  too  lav- 
ishly,—  constantly  thinking  how  to  amuse  them,  leaving 
them  without  restraint  to  continued  frolics,  allowing  them 
to  say  everything  they  desire,  and  to  do  everything 
they  like,  fearing  it  might  diminish  their  momentary 
happiness, —  permit  me  to  say,  you  do  wrong.  Allow 
me  also  to  refer  to  the  danger  of  an  extreme  bodily 
care.  Compare  the  rearing  of  poor  children  with  those 
of  rich  families,  and  judge  for  yourself.  What  will 
become  of  a  boy  who,  when  asked  what  to  eat,  only 
wants  the  best,  and  always  wants  his  own  will ;  when 
grown  up,  he  naturally  falls  a  victim  to  his  own  appe- 
tites and  those  of  others."  The  earnest  consideration  and 


WOMAN   AS    A   MOTHER.  29 

forethought  in  the  letter  of  Theane,  the  Greek  mother, 
brings  her  in  full  accord  with  the  educational  necessities 
and  ethical  views  of  the  present,  in  spite  of  a  lapse  of 
almost  twenty-four  hundred  years.  Thus  the  philosophic 
and  ethical  culture  and  wisdom  of  her  time,  the  power 
of  debating  and  competing  in  wise  and  witty  words  and 
thoughts,  were  not  the  result  of  year-long  book  learn- 
ing,—  reading  and  writing  was  little  taught,  —  but  of 
free  and  constantly  exercised  nationally  recognized  ora- 
torical gifts  and  oral  discussions.  In  the  same  degree 
her  husband,  Pythagoras,  influenced  his  disciples  by 
moral  inspiration  for  the  highest  virtues  of  man,  so 
Theane,  though  co-education  existed,  directs  special 
attention  to  woman's  educational,  social,  and  domestic 
duties.  For  example,  "on  the  right  direction  of  ser- 
vants and  others."  The  need  of  such  unity  in  work 
with  the  husband,  aiming  to  bind  men  and  women  to 
an  equal  devotion  to  virtue,  still  exists,  finding  its  re- 
vival of  late  in  the  "White  Cross." 

The  Greeks  developed  their  highest  culture  of  body 
and  mind,  of  art  and  science,  almost  entirely  orally.  So 
did  Theane,  and  in  doing  so,  she  used  a  gift  which 
belonged  through  all  ages  to  woman  as  a  special  tal- 
ent. It  comprises  one  of  the  highest  privileges  of 
motherhood ;  standing  out  forever  in  "  mother's  say- 
ing." In  this  sense,  the  power  of  woman  became  the 
oracle  of  man,  and  its  leaders  in  justice  and  wisdom. 
Did   she   reach   above   her   strength,  or   did   she   fall   a 


30  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

sacrifice  to  her  earthly  ideal?  But  it  was  her  own 
voice,  heard  through  the  mouth  of  the  oracle,  which 
subjected  mankind  to  a  blind  submission  that  brought 
man  and  foremost  the  woman  finally  under  the  fatal 
ban  which  keeps  her  to  this  hour.  The  oracles  de- 
manded "submission  without  reason"  The  truth-seek- 
ing period  of  Greek  creative  philosophy  gave  place 
to  submission  to  authorities.  It  brought  ruin  to  the 
most  lofty  period  of  man's  existence,  smothering  and 
blackening  forever  the  transparent  action  of  a  crea- 
tive, co-operative  equality  of  the  two  sexes.  Can  we 
regain  it?  We  will  regain  it  by  enlightened  mother- 
hood. We  know  of  the  Dark  Ages,  and  its  effect  on 
woman,  not  less  the  religious  fanaticism  and  its  hate- 
ful cruelty;  we  know  of  the  subsequent  frivolity  and 
its  twin  brother,  the  cynicism  of  the  Middle  Ages,  till 
the  morning  light  of  the  Renaissance  played  in  our 
own  glass-stained  windows. 

And  we  ask,  What  principles  of  independent  re- 
sponsibility, what  conscious  development  of  thought, 
what  higher  aims,  were  pointed  out  to  the  mind  of 
woman,  to  nourish  her  inborn  gifts  and  her  devo- 
tional love  to  the  family?  On  the  other  hand,  how 
readily  did  woman  answer  to  a  special  heroic  act,  to  a 
special  call  on  her  talents,  her  enthusiasm  for  the  right 
and  beautiful ;  but  her  passiveness  and  lethargy  being 
fostered,  woman,  as  a  whole,  has  not  yet  regained  the 
position  she  kept  among  the  ancients,  her  growth  burst- 


WOMAN   AS   A   MOTHER.  31 

ing  in  flowers  in  individual,  not  national,  perfection. 
And  history  is  full  of  these  single  instances  of  woman's 
greatness.  But  they  were  exceptions ;  woman's  exist- 
ence, the  origin  of  authority  and  fashion,  was  used 
neither  creatively  nor  co-operatively.  "The  house 
and  the  family"  and  "the  world  and  mankind"  became 
two  great  retarding  divisions.  Even  more,  it  was  de- 
clared that  woman  belongs  to  the  house,  man  to  the 
world.  What  then  of  the  child,  the  product  of  both? 
Thoughts,  experience,  and  the  inspiration  of  woman 
began  to  search  for  truth. 

Awakened  from  her  winter  sleep  of  blind  submission 
to  the  past,  she  had  to  defend  herself  for  this  awaken- 
ing. Eequested  to  lie  down  again  to  sleep  for  her  own 
and  her  children's  sake,  she  became  aroused  to  look  at 
the  world  and  her  relations  to  a  world  in  which  she  was 
ordained  to  bring  life  and  continuity  through  the  child 
she  was  bearing.  For  the  sake  of  this  child  she  read  the 
history  of  the  past ;  and  turning  her  eyes  from  the  pres- 
ent to  the  future,  she  began  to  feel  the  whole  weight 
of  being  a  responsible  woman  and  mother.  She  found 
that,  of  all  knowledge  dealt  out  to  woman,  the  scientific 
knowledge  of  herself,  her  motherly  function  and  her  moth- 
erly duties,  have  up  to  to-day  been  withheld.  Accom- 
plished, learned,  and  led  into  the  profoundest  studies, 
inspired  by  art,  but  without  any  methodical  preparation 
or  instruction  for  the  most  difficult  and  important  office, 
that    of   motherhood,    save    some    advices    of    superior 


32  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

mothers,  and  perhaps  superficial  insight  into  the  phys- 
iological construction  of  herself,  she  enters  the  home 
of  her  coming  child.  She  and  the  world  learned,  that 
to  be  a  teacher  needed  years  of  training  and  prepara- 
tion ;  but  to  be  a  mother  and  a  teacher  in  ONE,  at  the 
most  important  period  of  child's  life,  was  left  to  chance. 

"What  is  needed  to  improve  the  education  of  our 
children?"  asked  Napoleon.  "  Mothers, "  was  the  reply. 
To  which  he  answered,  "That  will  comprise  an  educa- 
tional system  by  itself."  (" U Education  des  meres  de 
families  "  by  Martin,  is  a  book  on  this  subject.) 

Convinced  of  the  irrepressible  influence  of  women, 
the  distinguished  Sheridan  planned  a  National  Woman's 
Education,  to  be  applied  to  all  tvomen  of  England,  In 
presenting  his  plan  to  the  queen,  asking  her  to  give  it 
her  patronage,  he  said :  "  It  is  woman  who  governs 
man ;  it  therefore  becomes  our  duty  to  perfect  them 
as  much  as  possible  by  education.  The  wisdom  of  man 
depends  on  the  mental  culture  of  woman.  It  is  woman 
who  dictates  the  laws  of  nature  to  man."  This  idea  of 
Sheridan  was  grand,  and  if  carried  out,  who  knows 
what  England  might  have  been  at  present?  Kant,  the 
philosopher,  referred  all  his  powers  to  the  first  influ- 
ence of  his  mother. 

HI.    WOMAN'S   SOCIAL  RESPONSIBILITY. 

We  refer  to  some  different  conditions  in  the  history  of 
woman,  and  we  refer  once  more  to  the  time  when  "  the 


woman's  social  responsibility.  33 

castle  was  her  home";  when  she  wove  and  spun,  cut, 
embroidered  and  dyed,  the  costly  garments,  with  her 
maid,  for  the  sovereigns  of  the  land ;  when  the  humble 
knight  drew  up  the  iron  drawbridge  which  hung  between 
her  and  the  outer  world,  who  blew  the  bugle-horn  at 
sight  of  her,  bridled  the  horse  to  prevent  her  tender  feet 
from  touching  the  roughness  of  the  mother  earth  and  its 
soil,  with  its  hard  laoor.  The  castles  are  gone,  and  the 
woman  of  to-day  has  to  face  the  world  as  it  is,  and  to 
walk  the  common  street  of  life  with  a  thousand  others. 
What  does  she  meet?  Is  it  that  youthful  frankness 
and  joy  which  knows  no  limits  in  its  unconscious  happy 
contentment  with  the  wayside  treasures  of  life?  or 
does  she  meet  with  a  conscious  earnestness  for  the 
matured  principles  of  truth  and  its  higher  gifts,  free 
to  all?  The  first  she  meets  is  the  whisper:  Do  not 
trust  this  world;  its  glittering  folds  hide  but  pain  and 
grief  and  dirt.  Do  not  try  to  touch  these  veiling  cur- 
tains. You  cannot  keep  clean  yourself  if  touching  them. 
The  world  is  not  better  fitted  for  you  than  one  thousand 
years  ago  for  your  sister  in  the  castle.  Do  not  walk  the 
common  street  of  life ;  return  to  your  home,  and  be 
silent.  Who  counts  the  million  of  women  who  pressed 
their  folded  hands  closely  over  their  burning  hearts  and 
eyes,  in  conflict  with  their  inmost  religious  devotion  and 
their  unwanted  love  for  all  men,  sent  home  to  be  silent? 
Who  counts  the  million  of  noble  women,  whose  endless 
love  on   account  of  narrowness,  idleness,  and  emptiness 


34  CONSCIOUS   MOTHEKHOOD. 

of  the  heart  turned  to  vanity  and  selfishness?  This 
time  still  hangs  over  us,  but  thanks  to  ourselves  and 
social  necessity,  the  spirit  of  the  latter  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  begins  to  struggle  against  the  ban  of  the 
past. 

The  woman  of  the  nineteenth  century  begins  to 
acknowledge  the  evolutional  forces  retained  by  her 
passivity  which  have  called  her  so  suddenly  to  the 
front.  She  recognizes  herself  as  the  missing  link,  with- 
out which  no  sound  fruit  can  ripen  on  the  tree  of  life  in 
human  society.  She  recognizes  herself  as  the  missing 
element  of  affectionate  motherly  insight  and  care  in  the 
great  household  of  man,  in  his  laws  and  regulations,  and 
in  the  most  painfully  neglected,  lawful  protection  of 
her  young.  She  recognizes  herself  in  her  moral  responsi- 
bility, equally  great,  to  the  state,  the  family,  and  the 
school. 

The  truth  thereby  revealed  to  her  is  based  on  the 
following  points :  — 

1.  That  woman,  in  its  fullest  meaning,  is  the  other 
half  of  humanity. 

2.  That  as  such,  she  is  an  essential  part  in  the  well- 
being  of  the  whole. 

3.  That  her  creative  power  lies  in  moral  reforms. 

4.  That  to  accomplish  this,  science  has  to  be  made 
her  ally. 

5.  That  practical  and  theoretical  preparation  is  ne- 
cessary for  this  work. 


m 

woman's  social  responsibility.  35 

On  this  basis,  she  demands  the  necessary  knowledge 
of  the  relation  of  body  and  mind,  and  their  reciprocal 
influences  on  heredity,  their  relation  to  health,  crime, 
and  their  sequences,  morality  and  happiness.  In  order 
to  save  man,  she  has  to  study  man. 

Women  have  concentrated  their  efforts  to  action  in 
common.  Their  organization  may  not  yet  be  com- 
pleted, nor  is  the  whole  ground  covered  with  what  lies 
before  them,  but  the  germ  is  sound.  It  is  bedded  in 
woman's  moral  strength  in  union.  This  germ  will  grow. 
Not  as  a  work  belonging  to  one  nation,  but  to  all  nations. 
Not  one  class,  but  all  classes.  Not  one  sex,  but  both 
sexes. 

No  one  can  anticipate  the  fullness  of  the  power  of 
such  an  organized  union  in  work  finding  its  point  of 
culmination  in  the  higher  conception  of  an  ideal  mother- 
hood toward  a  sacred  parenthood. 

Its  plea  is  urgent,  as  its  platform  broad.  It  will  be 
called  out  by  the  clear  voice  of  the  thinking  and  the 
loving  woman  for  the  soul  of  her  child.  It  is  from 
the  home  and  for  the  home  where  she  was  kept  silent 
that  her  voice  will  rise  in  divine  inspiration. 

It  is  the  truth  for  mankind  that  she  demands  where 
it  is  most  needed,  namely,  in  the  true  understanding  of 
its  nature.  It  is  her  own  fitness  which  she  demands 
for  the  highest,  the  most  powerful  religious  mission 
trusted  to  the  hands  of  mankind,  —  her  fitness  for  the 
crmtion  and  unfolding  of  her  child. 


CHAPTER  II. 

UNION  OF  BOTH  SEXES  IN  IDEAL  PABENTHOOD. 

I.  Child's  Creation  before  Birth.— II.  The  Increase  of  Crime,  Insanity, 
Idiocy,  and  Suicide  among  Children. —III.  What  is  told  by 
Statistics.  — IV.  Unity  in  Parenthood  the  Nucleus  of  the  Moral  and 
Physical  Perfection  of  Man. 

I.    CHILD'S   CREATION  BEFORE  BIRTH. 

*  Science,  busying  itself  always  more  or  less  intelli- 
gently about  man  as  an  object  of  study,  has  in  these 
last  days  seemed  to  find  the  right  key  wherewith  to 
unlock  both  the  outer  and  inner  courts  of  his  nature. 
It  has  tried  all  keys,  it  has  fumbled  at  all  the  locks 
of  his  many-doored  and  complex  organism,  and  in 
deciding  at  last  that  the  physiological  key  was  the  real 
pass-key  to  all  the  doors,  science  has  but  planted  its 
feet  in  the  "  long  untrodden  way "  used  two  thousand 
years  ago  by  the  Greeks,  who,  by  means  of  object  les- 
sons on  a  grand  scale,  in  the  shape  of  art  products  in 
every  form,  the  drama,  pictures,  statuary,  architecture, 
oratory,  gymnastics,  in  a  word,  every  activity  that 
could  develop  the  human  being,  and  every  sort  of 
knowledge    that    could   reach    him   through   perception, 

*This  paragraph  was  kindly  furnished  by  my  dear  friend  and  reviser, 
Mrs.  M.  G.  C. 


child's  creation  before  birth.  37 

managed  to  bring  into  being  the  most  symmetrical  race 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  Why  have  we  as  a  rule  pro- 
duced nothing  like  it  since?  Why  have  we  had  either 
disproportioned  prodigies,  or  half-endowed  organisms, 
or  intellectual  dwarfs  in  giant  bodies,  or  giant  intellects 
in  inefficient  bodies,  or  a  varied  imbecility  and  terrify- 
ing insanity?  Dr.  Seguin  says  (and  his  authority  none 
will  dispute),  it  is  chiefly  because  women,  —  those 
sacred  living  cradles  in  which  the  human  babe  is 
rocked  for  nine  all-important  months,  in  which  atom 
is  placed  on  atom  of  that  wonderful  structure  which  is 
to  become  the  dwelling  of  an  immortal  selfhood,  — 
women  are  not  rightly  related  either  to  their  privileges 
or  their  duty.  Their  education  has  not  kept  pace  with 
that  recognition  of  their  value  and  peerhood  with  man 
which  is  gradually  taking  place.  Seguin  says :  "  Their 
education  is  a  jumble  of  that  which  has  made  all  the 
male  mutilitus  we  have  known.  Their  h}rgiene  and 
habits  have  disqualified  them  for  motherly  functions ; 
their  education  has  not  taught  them  one  iota  of  woman- 
hood. How  can  a  woman  conceive  and  nurture,  with  a 
living  enthusiasm,  a  child  which  has  no  room  to  grow, 
which  she  has  no  strength  to  carry,  no  substance  to 
feed,  no  idea  how  it  is  to  be  handled,  cared  for, 
etc.  ?  " 

Does  anybody  suppose  the  Greek  mother,  to  whom  we 
must  refer  again  before  quoting  further  from  Dr.  Se- 
guin's  invaluable  monograph,  does  any  one  imagine  the 


38  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Greek  mother  could  have  given  birth  to  those  men  of 
incarnate  suppleness  and  grace,  obedient  muscle  and 
balanced  mind,  all  the  organs  acting  with  such  functional 
harmony  that  melancholy  and  suicide  were  all  but  un- 
known among  them,  if  the  Greek  mother  had  placed 
an  unyielding  wall  of  whalebone  and  steel  around  those 
parts  where  nature  put  a  wall  of  the  utmost  flexibility 
and  adaptation  to  the  changing  needs  of  its  contents? 
Those  beautiful  waists,  whose  models  have  come  down 
to  us  through  the  ancient  marbles,  appeal  in  vain  to  the 
silly,  or  imitative,  or  wilful  women  of  to-day,  who,  with- 
out knowing  the  origin  of  the  fashion,  have  followed  the 
lead  of  fashion-setting  courtesans.  And  how  can  we 
expect  a  noble  race  to  be  born  of  women  who  sacrifice 
first  of  all  that  attribute  in  which  God  lets  them  be  most 
like  Him,  —  power  to  create  human  beings,  or  in  the 
word  most  used,  their  procreative  power? 

Seguin,  after  repeating,  "The  unborn  child  has  no 
place  to  grow  in  peace,"  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  fact 
that  idiots  and  feeble-minded  children  are  much  more 
numerous  than  formerly ;  and  as  this  is  a  condition  nearly 
always  developed  before  birth,  he  asks,  "  What  has  hap- 
pened to  women,  that,  simultaneous  with  more  freedom  and 
more  intelligence,  they  should  breed  a  feebler  progeny?" 
This  question  he  answers  with  sad  conviction,  by  declar- 
ing that  women  are,  on  the  one  hand,  overburdened,  are 
exhausted  by  their  heroic  efforts  to  aid  their  husbands 
(who  have  themselves,  in  these  days   of  artificial  wants, 


child's  creation  before  birth.  39 

undertaken  more  than  they  can  do),  that  they  have  anti- 
physiological  educations,  and  lead  uneasy,  feverish  lives, 
owing  partly  again  to  their  sympathy  with  their  husband's 
speculations.  "Women,"  he  says,  "who  would,  if  se- 
cure in  their  homes,  willingly  raise  a  brood  of  loving 
creatures,  now  pray  earnestly  to  God  to  send  them  no 
children  to  fear  for."  They  suffer  more  than  their  hus- 
bands, because,  after  suffering  with  them,  in  head  and 
heart,  they  add  to  this  the  anguish  of  their  wombs,  and 
this  anguish  it  is  which  chills  and  dwarfs  its  fruit,  when 
it  does  not  render  the  womb  itself  entirely  barren. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  inactive,  useless,  unreal  lives  of 
women  of  the  class  of  idlers  leave  motherhood  aside  as  a 
function  incompatible  with  social  gayeties,  and  the  acci- 
dental and  unwelcome  products  of  such  wombs  are  all 
unwarmed  and  uncheered  by  love  and  hope  and  tender 
emotions.  The  remedy  lies  in  a  return  to  physiological 
conditions,  in  a  recognition  of  the  mother's  power  to  shape 
and  mold  her  child,  not  physically  only,  but  mentally  and 
morally,  before  it  is  born. 

The  natural  laws  which  determine  such  results  are  no 
more  immutable  in  the  breeding  of  a  race-horse,  an  apple, 
or  a  rose,  than  they  are  in  the  production  of  a  human 
being. 

It  is  true,  we  are  not  yet  able,  in  the  case  of  the 
human  being,  so  to  ally  ourselves  with  those  laws  as 
to  make  it  possible  to  predict  the  result  with  such  cer- 
tainty as  we  may  in  the  lower  organic  kingdoms.     This 


40  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 


is  because  of  the  immense  complexity  of  the  stream 
of  human  heredity,  and  the  sensitive  condition  of  the 
pregnant  mother  who  is  subject  to  the  thousand  vary- 
ing impressions  of  her  daily  life.  One  fact  stands  out 
clear, — the  flood  of  light  that  is  to-day  poured  on  the 
working  of  natural  laws,  and  our  power  to  modify  natural 
processes,  increase  our  responsibility  in  a  fearful  degree. 
When  a  mother  is  taught  that  the  sensitive  fluid,  in 
which  her  unborn  child  is  suspended,  can  and  does  con- 
vey to  it  every  shock  it  receives  by  her  ;  when  she  knows 
not  only  that  her  anger  or  her  fright  may  cause  the  ner- 
vous system  of  the  forming  babe  almost  to  dissolve,  and 
turn  it  into  an  idiot  or  an  epileptic,  but  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  she  may  decide  his  morality  before  he  is  born,  will 
she  not  tremble  in  her  eagerness  to  know  how  she  must 
act  in  order  that  her  child  shall  be  brought  into  the  world 
healthy,  and  with  right  disposition  of  soul,  and  balanced 
aptitudes  of  intellect  ?  Unfortunately,  the  problem  of  how 
to  give  each  child  that  sacredest  birthright,  the  right  to 
be  well  born,  the  world  is  not  yet  ready  to  solve  in  the 
only  way  in  which  it  can  be  truly  solved,  the  way  in 
which  it  must  be  finally  solved,  viz.,  by  right  marriage; 
and  so,  for  the  present,  we  who  wish  to  aid  mothers 
must  content  ourselves  with  offering  such  help  as  will  be 
accepted.  And  the  following  are  some  of  the  facts  and 
principles  which  it  will  be  helpful  for  them  to  know  and 
to  ponder,  and  faithfully  to  act  upon.  First  of  all,  then, 
there  is  a  duty  we    owe  our  children,  even  before  their 


child's  creation  before  birth.  41 

conception ;  it  is,  that  we  should  desire  them,  that  we 
should  preconceive  with  love  and  longing  the  immortal 
be  in  a-  whom  we  are  to  aid  in  fashioning  for  a  life  on  this 
planet. 

Then,  from  the  instant  that  a  mother  knows  herself 
pregnant,  she  should  begin  the  education  of  her  unborn 
infant.  If,  as  every  one  believes,  a  mother  may  mark  the 
child  in  her  womb  by  some  hideous  deformity,  by  a  sudden 
impression  on  her  senses,  so,  conversely,  may  she  mold  it 
to  symmetry  and  beauty  of  body  and  soul  through  con- 
stantly recurring  sensations  of  an  exalted  kind.  "In 
Vienna,  when  an  heir  to  the  throne  was  expected,  the 
Empress  was  given  in  charge  to  a  special  directress,  who 
would  regulate  all  her  actions  and  surroundings,  in  view 
of  commencing  the  education  of  the  contingent  monarch, 
as  early  as  the  first  evolution  of  the  yolk-substance  of  the 
human  egg"  Here  there  is  recognition  of  pre-natal  edu- 
cation because  it  is  the  heir  of  the  throne,  and  the  child  of 
an  Empress.  Has  not  every  unborn  human  being  a  right 
to  pre-natal  education,  being  the  "heir  of  all  the  ages," 
and  the  child  of  God?  Alluding  to  the  ancient  Israelitish 
custom  of  permitting  the  newly  married  to  live  one  happy 
year  free  from  labor  and  necessities,  Seguin  says  :  "This 
was  economy  (to  the  state) ,  since  it  cost  less  than  the  life- 
long support  of  infirm  children  born  of  ill-developed  and 
careworn  young  women,  who  themselves  hardly  ever 
recover  from  the  simultaneous  drain  on  their  constitutions 
of  pregnancy,  overwork,  and  moral  distress."     And  he 


42  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD; 

goes  on  to  say :  "No  wonder,  on  the  contrary,  that  from 
the  martyrs  of  the  flat  and  depressing  dramas  silently 
enacted  in  our  days  for  a  miserable  livelihood,  are  horn 
children  not  only  idiotic  and  epileptic,  but  insane ;  .  .  . 
insane  before  their  brains  could  have  been  deranged  by 
their  own  exertions ;  insane,  likely,  by  a  reflex  action  of 
the  nervous  exhaustion  of  their  mother." 

On  the  other  hand,  Seguin,  as  well  as  other  earnest 
writers,  deplores  an  indolent,  purposeless  life  for  the 
pregnant  woman.  He  speaks  of  the  inferior  and  defi- 
cient children  born  of  M  the  endless  siestas  and  satieties 
of  the  rich."  If  the  child  is  to  have  good  muscles,  the 
mother  must  use  her  muscles  ;  not  to  the  point  of  fatigue, 
for  that  is  bad  for  every  one,  but  she  must  exercise  them, 
for  it  is  those  organs  and  faculties  which  the  pregnant 
mother  actively  uses  that  are  most  apt  to  be  in  fullest 
function  in  her  offspring.  Over  and  over  again  it  has 
been  proved,  and  but  for  fear  of  making  this  chapter  too 
long,  cases  could  be  cited  to  show  how,  by  the  careful 
and  conscientious  use  of  her  own  powers,  with  direct 
reference  to  the  molding  of  her  child,  a  mother  has  pro- 
duced the  effect  she  most  desired.  Not  by  silly  gazing 
at  pictures,  or  by  fitful  wishes  that  her  forming  offspring 
should  be  thus  and  so,  can  the  breeding  mother  hope  to 
effect  the  object ;  but  by  being  herself  what  she  wishes 
her  child  to  be,  and  that  earnestly,  steadily,  patiently. 
Above  all  things,  self-control,  being  one  of  the  most  price- 
less possessions  of  humanity,  is  the  characteristic  I  would 


child's  creation  before  birth.  43 

entreat  both  the  gestative  and  the  nursing  mother  to  cul- 
tivate. Instances  could  be  multiplied  where  mothers,  by 
giving  way  to  ungoverned  anger,  hare  so  poisoned  their 
milk  that  the  nursing  babes  were  killed  by  it.  One  case 
that  I  recall  was  of  a  young  woman,  whose  first  babe 
had  died  from  that  cause ;  and  who,  knowing  that  fact, 
still  persisted  in  giving  the  breast  to  a  second  child  on 
one  occasion  when  she  had  been  passionately  angered ; 
and  when  that  child  also  died,  the  wretched  woman 
became  a  prey  to  conscience,  and  died  herself  in  una- 
vailing remorse. 

How  often  must  one  combat  the  superstition  that, 
unless  a  mother  is  gratified  in  every  whim  during  her 
gestation,  her  child  will  be  marked?  Let  every  preg- 
nant woman  receive  the  tenderest  care,  yes,  let  her 
harmless  fancies  be  indulged ;  but  when  she  "  longs " 
for  anything  pernicious,  teach  her  that  there  are  two 
sufficient  reasons  for  denying  herself:  first,  because 
the  thing  itself  will  hurt  her  or  her  offspring,  or  both  ; 
second,  because  her  conquest  of  herself  will  strengthen 
the  power  of  conquest  in  the  child. 

When  one  remembers  how  the  babe  within  the  womb 
depends,  not  only  for  every  atom  of  its  body,  but  for 
every  tendency  and  disposition  of  its  spirit,  on  the  flow 
of  nerve-force  from  its  mother's  brain  and  the  steady 
current  of  blood  from  her  heart ;  that  her  every  thought, 
and  especially  her  every  desire,  influences  it ;  that  even 
her  dreams   may  fashion    somewhat   its   limbs,    or   give 


44  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

color  and  direction  to  its  impulses,  then  one  begins  to 
realize  how  tremendous  is  that  responsibility  that  God 
has  laid  on  the  mothers  of  the  human  race,  and  how 
great,  also,  is  the  responsibility  of  those  who  should  ade- 
quately teach  them  their  relation  to  their  duties. 

II.     INCREASE   OP   CRIME. 

The  fact  that  eminent  physicians  have  of  late  become 
earnest  promoters  and  writers  on  a  necessary  reform  in 
education,  must  be  regarded  as  a  proof  of  the  growing 
anthropological  conception  of  the  human  being.  Among 
these  writings  we  note  the  educational  works  of  Dr. 
E.  Seguin  in  America,  Dr.  Maudsley  in  England,  Dr. 
Dalle  in  France,  and  of  Prof.  Wilhelm  Preyer  in  Ger- 
many, and  others.  They  recognize  in  the  increasing 
crime,  idiocy,  insanity,  suicide,  intemperance,  and  pov- 
erty a  slowly  increasing  deterioration  of  the  race.  The 
foregoing  views  on  heredity  and  kindred  subjects  prove 
that  a  priori  "man  is  not  born  aright."  This  cannot  sur- 
prise us.  With  the  prevailing  uncertainty  as  to  the 
desired  normal  standard  of  his  body,  his  intellect,  and 
his  morals,  man  enters  a  world  which  receives  him 
without  convictions  as  to  what  he  ought  or  ought  not 
to  be.  Our  claims  on  freedom  for  all,  and  equal 
rights,  are  neither  strong  enough  nor  sufficiently  clear 
to  constitute  and  carry  out  a  matured  idea  of  how  man 
should  be  educated ;  that  is,  we  neither  know  of  a 
true  art  how  to  live,  nor   do  we  know  how  to  prepare 


INCREASE   OF   CRIME.  45 

others  for  living.  The  ancients  educated  every  man 
according  to  his  caste,  using  his  individual  powers  as  a 
part  of  the  whole.  He  fell  or  rose  in  and  with  his  pro- 
fession. This  condition  passed  away,  with  the  exception 
of  the  rigid  preparation  given  in  our  day  for  military  duty 
in  Germany.  Apart  from  this,  there  is  no  stability  in 
opinion,  custom,  or  law,  save  the  passing  through  a  cer- 
tain curriculum  of  intellectual  training  which  ignores 
manifestly  and  fully  the  obligation  of  an  all-sided  prep- 
aration for  life.  "  Let  him  fight  his  own  way,"  "  Let 
him  be  strong  enough  to  avoid  wrong,"  are  all  the  watch- 
words to  the  young,  inexperienced  human  being,  where- 
with to  conquer  the  thousand  daily  temptations,  to 
control  passions  of  whose  existence  he  was  till  then 
wholly  unaware.  These  conditions  are  the  common  ones. 
Young  people,  in  most  cases,  are  called  upon  to  act 
responsibly  for  themselves,  as  free  as  the  air  they  breathe, 
yet  without  sufficient  protection.  To  succeed  "mate- 
rially "  in  life  is  the  aim  of  practical  training,  as  we  call 
it.  This  is  the  goal  to  be  reached.  The  higher  and 
more  conspicuous  this  is,  the  more  valued  is  the  success. 
How  to  reach  this  goal  is  the  pointed  motor  of  all  actions. 
No  time  or  inclination  is  left  for  broadness  of  aim, 
of  fullness,  of  conception  of  being  happy  by  making 
others  happy ;  at  least,  not  as  a  rule.  All  that  lies  to 
the  right  or  left,  above  or  below  this  aim,  is  of  little 
consequence.  Nothing  remains  constant  but  self!  self! 
The  home,  not  always  demonstrating  unity  in  will  and 


46  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

higher  aspiration,  develops  not  seldom  little  faith  in 
authority  of  either  father  or  mother.  The  child  neither 
seeks  nor  gets  the  needed  watchful  assistance  from  the 
close  union  of  parenthood ;  and  if  this  is  not  reached,  the 
home  will  never  be  his  sole  resting-place,  though  by 
higher  laws  it  is  the  ordained  place  for  the  recuperation 
of  his  better  self.  The  child's  whole  nervous  system 
from  his  first  remembrance  is  too  much  stirred  up  by  the 
discords,  the  struggles  even,  of  the  battle  of  life.  These 
he  has  not  seldom  found  in  the  heart  of  his  own  home.  He 
has  hourly  become  aware,  instinctively  and  intrinsically, 
of  the  conflict  between  the  two  sexes.  Fried.  Froebel, 
before  he  was  six  years  old,  suffered  so  deeply  from  the 
discordant  life  between  his  father  (a  clergyman)  and  his 
father's  wife,  that  he  asked  his  older  brother  n  why  God 
did  n't  make  all  men  or  all  women,  if  they  could  not 
live  without  quarreling."  Which  question  his  brother 
answered  by  leading  him  to  a  hazel  shrub,  calling  his 
attention  to  the  difference  between  the  male  and  female 
flower  in  the  necessity  for  reproduction,  —  a  fact  which 
directed  thus  early  the  young  child's  mind  to  the  prob- 
lems and  beauties  of  nature.  On  a  recent  occasion, 
Archdeacon  Farrar,  of  Westminster  Abbey,  London,  to 
whom  we  referred  as  regards  the  necessity  of  the  culture 
of  emotions,  said  of  Persian  education  :  "  We  boast  of  our 
educational  ideal.  Is  it  nearly  as  high  in  some  essentials 
as  that  of  some  heathen  nations  long  centuries  before 
Christ?     The  ancient  Persians  were  worshipers  of  fire 


INCREASE    OF   CRIME.  47 

and  of  the  sun  ;  most  of  their  children  would  have  been 
probably  unable  to  pass  the  most  elementary  examina- 
tion, but  assuredly  the  Persian  ideal  might  be  worthy  of 
our  study.  At  the  age  of  fourteen,  the  age  when  we 
turn  our  children  adrift  from  school  and  do  nothing  more 
for  them,  the  Persians  gave  their  young  nobles  the  four 
best  masters  whom  they  could  find,  to  teach  their  boys 
wisdom,  justice,  temperance,  and  courage,  —  wisdom,  in- 
cluding worship ;  justice,  including  the  duty  of  unswerv- 
ing truthfulness  through  life ;  temperance,  including 
mastery  over  sensual  temptations ;  courage,  including 
a  free  mind  opposed  to  all  things  coupled  with  guilt." 

Let  us  consider  frankly  the  course  pursued  toward 
the  children  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Science,  the 
absolute  power  of  the  age,  tells  us  by  clearly  proved 
facts  that  our  children  are  not  born  as  well  as  they 
should  be ;  that  they  have  to  encounter  more  compli- 
cated moral-tempting  and  moral-destroying  elements 
than  life  has  ever  before  presented  to  obstruct  the  physi- 
cal, mental,  and  moral  condition  of  man. 

The  effect  of  these  evils  is  manifest  in  the  degener- 
acy  of  our  youth.  History  describes  education  in  past 
ages  as  inculcating,  with  the  exception  of  some  special 
periods,  extreme  simplicity,  frugality,  and  the  utmost 
moral  restraint  by  means  of  family  ties.  It  tells  of 
guilds  of  apprentices  bound  to  the  family  of  the  master 
in  the  exercise  of  patience,  obedience,  and  respect;  of  the 
motherly  influence  of  the  master's  wife^  an4  sometimes  of 

'J/*  or  imr* 

TJJIVHRSITT1 


'<& 


48  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

the  pure,  long  wooing  of  the  master's  lovely  daughter ; 
this  simple,  pure  love  shielding  the  young  man  for 
seven  long  years  against  temptation,  while  traveling 
from  place  to  place,  practicing  his  trade  for  a  living, 
and  studying  man  and  the  world ;  his  heart  light  as 
his  feet,  assured  that  in  every  place,  however  small 
it  might  be,  he  would  receive  a  fatherly  and  motherly 
welcome,  and  be  cared  for  by  the  officially  appointed 
(Herbergsvater)  village  innkeeper  and  his  loving  wife, 
till  at  the  end  of  his  journeying,  after  having  finished 
his  "  masterpiece,"  his  loving  bride  would  meet  him  in 
a  happy  home,  for  which  he  had  labored  patiently,  dili- 
gently, and  honestly,  true  to  his  first  vow.  We  know 
of  the  Greeks,  and  their  careful  watch  over  their  youth. 
Their  best  men  were  kept  with  them  night  and  day, 
affording  them  their  highest  influence  and  example. 
Their  boys  and  youth  were  not  allowed  to  go  to  the 
public  markets,  in  order  to  protect  them  from  low 
influences.  We  know  of  the  Spartan  fathers,  who 
took  their  boys  to  their  feasts,  lest  they  might  not 
neglect  for  a  moment  their  self-control  in  partaking  of 
food  or  in  giving  expression  to  their  thoughts.  We 
know  of  similar  restrictions  among  the  Hebrews ;  and 
it  is  an  undeniable  fact  that,  as  stated  in  the  report  of 
the  Bureau  of  Education  at  Washington,  prisoners  and 
criminals  are  very  rare  exceptions  among  them,  not  less 
unhappy  marriages. 

This  brings  forth  the  question,  Are  our  children  to  be 


IXCREASE   OF   CRIME.  49 

blamed?  That  our  children  are  not  to  be  blamed,  is 
beyond  all  question.  It  is  also  evident  that  the  in- 
stinctive love  of  the  mother,  which  makes  her  willing 
and  ready  to  sacrifice  her  whole  life  to  the  welfare  of 
her  child,  is  not  quite  sufficient  to  meet  the  extended 
and  complicated  wants  of  the  child,  and  in  this  inca- 
pacity her  over-burdened  husband  participates.  Thus 
individual  family  fitness  is,  unless  with  exceptions, 
inefficient.  The  simple  duties  and  obligations  of  fam- 
ily living,  that  is,  attention  to  the  style  and  the  required 
environments,  are  all  a  woman  of  average  capacity  can 
attend  to.  And  the  burning  question  of  the  day  is, 
How  can  a  mother  devote  herself  dutifully  to  her  family 
and  also  to  her  social  position  ?  The  school  in  its  effect 
is  partly  weakened  by  insufficient  home  influence,  and 
partly  by  not  recognizing  itself  as  a  fully  responsi- 
ble institution  to  perfect  the  man  in  the  child  as  a 
whole,  but  to  prepare  him  for  life  as  a  part  ;  and  as 
long  as  neither  the  conception  of  the  individual  man 
as  a  whole,  nor  the  means  to  such  end  are  fully  known, 
and  as  long  as  motherly  educational  principles  instead 
of  traditional  customs  have  not  been  connected  with  the 
first  development  of  our  babies,  it  can  never  be  done. 

Moral  conception,  leading  to  self-knowledge  and  jus- 
tice, is  not  made  the  root-stock  with  which  our  chil- 
dren begin  life  in  the  cradle,  to  be  carried  as  the 
most  valued  banner  throughout  their  school  life.  What 
takes  the   place    instead?     Ambition    and    success    are 


50  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

written  on  the  banners  we  put  in  the  hands  of  our 
dear  loving  children,  before  they  can  spell  these  dan- 
gerous words,  which  read  in  plain  language,  "  I  kill 
you  morally,  or  you  kill  me!  and  the  end  justifies  the 
means."  Where  does  the  responsibility  for  this  condi- 
tion rest?  The  home  claims  it  is  the  school,  and  the 
school  blames  the  home.  Neither  is  justified;  yet  it 
is  clear  that  as  long  as  there  is  no  unity  in  action 
between  these  two  educational  bodies,  the  child,  and 
with  it  the  coming  generation,  must  fall  a  victim. 
There  never  was  a  time  when  the  search  for  true  edu- 
cation was  more  strongly  felt.  And  painful  as  it  seems, 
our  children,  with  all  our  boasting  of  intellectual 
teaching,  logically  fall  a  sacrifice  to  our  ignorance  and 
disagreements,  in  many  cases  leaving  them  wholly 
unprotected.  Why  is  it,  for  instance,  that  though  much 
is  written  and  spoken,  and  many  official  efforts  are 
made,  to  save  our  children  from  vile,  corrupting  lit- 
erature, we  still  cannot  prevent  it?  We,  a  great,  proud, 
powerful  nation,  free  and  independent  to  make  our 
laws,  find  ourselves  powerless  to  suppress  the  corrupt- 
ing influences  of  vile  literature  to  which  our  innocent 
youth,  and  consequently  the  coming  generation,  fall  a 
victim ! 

When  Agassiz  was  requested  by  Virchow,  the  dis- 
tinguished German  scientist,  to  inform  himself  as  to 
the  manner  of  recreation  in  our  school  play-grounds,  he 
found,  to  his  great  amazement,  groups  of  children  read- 


INCREASE    OF   CRIME.  51 

ing  the  vilest  literature,  such  as  an  adult  would  reject 
with  indignation.*  Why  is  it  that  human  actions  which 
are  considered  as  degrading  man  below  the  animals,  and 
yet  from  an  opposite  view  are  considered  as  essential 
to  human  existence,  are  brought  temptingly  before  the 
eyes  and  the  mind  of  our  youth  of  both  sexes,  often 
near  to  their  homes,  and  even  in  the  open  thorough- 
fares, such  pursuits  filling  large  quarters  in  the  centers 
of  our  cities?  Lycurgus,  of  Sparta,  resolved  the  whole 
business  of  legislation  into  the  bringing  up  of  youth. 
He  looked  upon  the  education  of  youth  as  the  most 
glorious  work  of  a  law-giver  ;  and  by  regulating  mar- 
riage he  began  at  the  very  source,  taking  conception 
and  birth  into  consideration.  He  ordered  the  virgins 
to  exercise  themselves  in  running,  wrestling,  and  throw- 
ing quoits  and  darts,  that  their  bodies  might  be  strong 
and  vigorous,  so  that  their  children  might  be  the  same. 
It  was  to  the  young  woman  that  he  gave  the  power  to 
praise  the  young  man  for  his  bravery  and  good  charac- 
ter, thus  exciting  in  the  young  man  a  useful  emulation 
and  love  of  glory  in  character  and  manners.  Their 
ideas  and  their  aims  were  naturally  elevated  by  public 
games  and  co-education,  yet  this  was  four  hundred  years 
before  Christ.  How  is  it  possible  that  a  meeting  held 
in  Vice-President  Wilson's  room  at  the  Capitol,  to  pro- 
vide an  industrial  home  in  which  any  girl  found  wander- 

*  Some  cities  have  their  experienced  smokers  of  five  and  six  sum- 
mers old. 


52  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

ing  without  honest  occupation  should  find  protection, 
could  come  to  a  close  without  any  success?  —  a  meeting 
in  which  about  a  dozen  policemen  stated  facts  so  horri- 
fyingly painful  that  hardly  an  eye  remained  dry  among 
those  present.  Who  can  be  blamed  for  the  consequences 
but  the  "  unprotecting,"  the  "unguiding  forces,"  with  our 
want  of  care  and  of  proper  laws,  our  want  of  knowledge 
or  interest? 

We,  the  mothers  of  the  race,  need  to  be  aroused  to 
action  against  the  evils  which  lie  at  the  root  of  the 
sanctity  of  our  married  life.  Few  American  mothers 
are  unaware  of  the  able  educational  bill  brought  before 
our  Congress  by  the  Hon.  Henry  Blair,  during  several 
successive  terms.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  no  American 
mother  will  rest,  until  our  own  Congress  resolves,  like 
that  of  Sparta,  to  protect  our  youth.  Laws  are  needed  in 
their  favor  in  a  hundred  different  ways,  best  felt  and 
known  by  the  keen,  loving  perception  of  a  clear,  practi- 
cal mother's  insight  into  life,  for  which  she  has  to  be 
prepared  by  especial  studies,  among  them  the  history  of 
her  own  sex.  Man's  intellect  develops  through  his  pro- 
fessional studies  and  individual  experiences  of  life.  He 
learns  that  the  young  tree,  tossed  and  blown  by  the  cold 
winds  beyond  its  strength,  would  bear  less  fruit  if  unpro- 
tected against  these  and  the  destruction  of  insects  and 
weather,  so  he  studies  and  applies  the  necessary  remedies, 
watchfully  and  permanently.  Have  all  fathers  whom  God 
ordained  to  this  highest  of  all  offices,  namely,  to  create 


WHAT    IS    TOLD   BY   STATISTICS.  53 

and  to  perfect  children,  studied  conscientiously  all  that  is 
needed  for  this  office  ?  Has  he  who  delights  in  the  birth 
of  his  child,  read  the  alarming  report  that  crime,  in- 
sanity, and  idiocy  are  increasing  among  children,  and  has 
he  studied  the  "  whys  "?  Has  each  father  instructed  his 
representative  legislator  to  prevent  these  evils  by  mak- 
ing proper  laws  to  prevent  crime,  indeed  of  correcting 
it  ?  Has  he  studied  these  "  whys  "  with  the  mother  of 
his  own  child,  in  such  works  as  they  may  be  able  to 
find  on  the  earliest  hygienic,  mental,  physical,  and 
moral  care  of  their  child?  Or  is  the  over-anxious  edu- 
cator and  lover  of  childhood  giving  a  false  alarm  ?  Let 
us  see  what  statistics  tell  us. 


III.    WHAT  IS   TOLD   BY   STATISTICS. 

The  earnestness  which  stamps  these  writings  may  serve 
to  prove  that  the  contents  of  this  part  have  been  most 
carefully  selected.  They  were  partly  taken  from  the 
census,  partly  from  papers  and  reports,  published  on 
purpose  or  read  from  the  pulpit  in  grave  consideration 
of  the  existing  evils.  The  aim  to  arouse  a  conscious  in- 
sight into  these  alarming  facts,  making  clear  that  nothing 
will  remedy  them  but  prevention  by  personal  education 
and  efforts,  is  based  on  faith  in  mankind,  and  especially 
in  womankind.  Higher  moral  inspiration  of  woman,  if 
called  for,  has  never  failed,  as  it  is  written  on  every  page 
of  history.     May  it  not  fail  in  this  case  to  develop  an 


54  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

equal  field  of  activity  among  men  as  well  as  among 
women  ! 

One  of  the  circulars  of  information  from  the  Bureau 
of  Education  says  :  Out  of  415  convicts  sentenced  to  the 
Massachusetts  State  prisons  in  a  single  year,  more  than 
half  were  born  in  Massachusetts,  and  more  than  half 
were  under  twenty-five  years  of  age,  the  average  age  of  all 
convicts  being  for  some  time  past  twenty-four  years  ;  in 
California,  twenty  years.  Judge  Cowing,  of  New  York, 
calls  attention  to  the  alarming  increase  of  crime,  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  convicts  being  young  men,  of  which, 
again,  a  large  number  belong  to  the  higher  educated 
classes.  As  to  murders,  the  United  States  Census  re- 
lates as  follows:  In  1850,  one  to  3,442;  1860,  one  to 
1,647;  1870,  one  to  1,172;  and  1880,  one  to  860. 
Since  then  there  has  been  a  yearly  increase  of  200. 

Massachusetts  enclosed,  in  1881,  7,416  juveniles  m 
the  atmosphere  of  a  prison.  One  hundred  of  them  were 
under  twelve  years  of  age,  and  some  so  small  that  they 
had  to  be  lifted  up  at  the  bar.  The  New  York  World 
gives  the  following  extract  from  an  official  report  of  the 
State  Board  of  Charities  and  Corrections  sent  to  the 
Senate  :  — 

"More  than  52,800  persons,  as  criminals,  paupers,  are 
inmates  of  hospitals  and  reformatories  in  New  York 
State  !  Ninety  per  cent  of  all  this  crime,  disease,  in- 
sanity, expense  to  tax-payers,  and  disease  to  the  State, 
is  due  to  the  use  of  liquors. 


WHAT   IS   TOLD   BY   STATISTICS.  55 

"  The  State  should  prohibit  the  sale  and  use  of  liquor, 
or  prohibit  the  publication  of  its  black  facts. 

"  To  purchase  land  and  erect  the  buildings  required  for 
this  sheltering  of  rum  victims  in  New  York,  $43,303,- 
478.85  have  been  expended. 

"What  a  stretch  of  country  this  sum  would  have  beau- 
tified, aud  how  many  private  houses  it  would  have  built, 
how  many  children  educated  ! 

"The  cost  of  these  institutions  for  1883  was  nearly 
$10,000,000.  To  this  add  the  care,  the  sorrow,  sickness, 
suffering,  and  the  effects  of  all  this  and  all  these  upon  the 
unborn,  who  will  indeed  be  justified  in  calling  upon 
God  to  avenge  a  people  whose  united  public  sentiment 
tolerates  and  encourages  the  cause  that  produces  such 
results." 

From  a  sermon  delivered  in  February,  1887,  at  Boston, 
by  a  most  distinguished  clergyman,  for  years  personally 
devoted  to  the  solution  of  social  problems,  we  are  allowed 
to  quote  the  following  :  — 

"In  no  land  in  the  world  is  crime  so  on  the  increase 
as  in  ours.  With  all  our  patriotic  pride,  we  have  to 
confess  that  we  are  going  downward  in  the  scale  of 
public  morals  faster  than  any  great  modern  nation.  In 
1850  there  were  in  the  prisons,  7,000;  in  1860,  19,- 
000;  in  1870,  33,000;  in  1880,  59,000:  that  is,  in 
1850,  one  prisoner  to  3,000;  in  1870,  one  to  1,000; 
1880.  one  to  837  ;  and  1885,  one  to  576.  And  our  own 
Suffolk  County  puts  the  proportion  one  to  278. 


56  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

"  We  are  responsible  !  England  and  other  nations  are 
decreasing  in  crime.  In  England  they  have  but  one 
criminal  to  18,000,  because  they  care  for  reformation,  — 
we  only  for  retribution" 

England,  by  a  very  efficient  reform-school  system,  has 
reduced  juvenile  crime  to  an  astonishing  degree.  In 
1856,  there  were  in  England  and  Wales  99,755  adult 
commitments,  and  13,891  juvenile  commitments.  In 
1884,  there  were  only  171,588  adult  and  only  4,879 
juvenile  criminals.  If  the  rates  of  juvenile  to  adult 
commitments  had  remained  the  same  as  in  1856,  the 
number  would  have  been  about  24,000. 

It  would  fill  a  little  book  by  itself  to  refer  to  the  dif- 
ferent ways  and  means  by  which  almost  every  nation 
tried  to  strengthen  the  moral  capacities  of  their  youth, — 
the  Kiflemen  in  England,  the  Jugendwehr  and  the  Kna- 
benhorst  in  Germany,  and  the  school  gardens.  The  or- 
ganized games  in  Switzerland  tend  to  the  same  end. 
Russia,  for  instance,  collects  every  night  on  its  public 
places  an  immense  heap  of  gravel,  to  be  playfully  lev- 
eled by  the  children  in  daytime.  And  the  city  of  Paris, 
by  supporting  34,000  orphans,  or  children  without  homes, 
has  of  late  provided  for  3,000  more,  by  placing  them  in 
good  country  homes  or  in  responsible  factories.  The 
work,  it  is  said,  is  done  with  great  success. 

Those  familiar  with  woman's  activities  to  solve  and 
uplift  social  problems,  know  of  the  high  rank  English 
women  take  in  science  side  by  side  with  the  social  econ- 


WHAT   IS   TOLD   BY   STATISTICS.  57 

omists  and  in  practical  labor  to  better  the  condition  of 
man  ;  a  fact  which  it  seems  is  not  quite  decided,  as  mean- 
while Dr.  E.  Seguin  speaks  in  highest  praise  of  woman's 
scientific  assistance  in  the  treatment  and  care  of  the 
feeble-minded  and  idiots.  Mr.  William  T.  Litchworth, 
in  his  treatise  called  "Children  of  the  State,"  says:  "I 
think  that  in  M  juvenile  reformatory  work,  women  should 
be  permitted  to  participate  as  equals." 

In  studying  these  questions  in  England,  I  was  sur- 
prised to  meet  the  devotion  and  self-abnegation  of  women 
of  wealth,  social  rank,  highest  culture,  and  personal 
beauty,  who  live  actually  with  andybr  the  depraved 
classes.  They  are  married  and  unmarried,  with  family 
and  without  family.  On  account  of  a  wonderfully  prac- 
tical division  of  labor  and  time,  and  their  great  sim- 
plicity in  dress  on  the  streets,  they  have  leisure,  and 
give  inspiring  educational  powers,  where  our  average 
rich  people  merely  pay  their  money.  Thanks  to  the 
immense  power  of  women  of  the  Temperance  Union 
and  the  kindergartens,  and  some  other  kindred  institu- 
tions, there  are  similar  efforts  made  in  this  country. 
Fortunately,  the  kindergarten  system,  as  originated  by 
Fr.  Froebel,  becomes  more  and  more  recognized  in  its 
educational,  instead  of  mere  charity  value  ;  and,  if  carried 
on  in  its  great  humane,  instead  of  its  township  spirit,  by 
efficient  teachers,  it  will  become  the  chief  starting-point 
of  pedagogics  through  the  fundamental  insight  in  human 
nature,  and  its  diversities  therein  laid  open. 


58  CONSCIOUS  MOTHEEHOOD. 

It  is  already  affirmed  by  our  kindergartners  that  chil- 
dren, as  a  rule,  are  "  not  born  lawless " ;  a  view  W. 
Preyer  takes  also.  Look  at  the  thousand  reports  on  the 
most  depraved  children,  —  as  we  call  them,  whether  rightly 
or  not,  —  how  soon  their  association  with  kindness  and 
righteousness  develops  in  them  flowers  and  fruits  of  the 
utmost  delicacy  !  Why  this  ?  Simply  because  we  have 
turned  their  attention  from  the  dark  side  of  life,  and  led 
them  into  the  spheres  of  harmony  and  beauty.  Mere 
roughness,  coarseness,  and  boasting,  nay,  even  bodily 
force,  and  disrespect  of  law,  have  nothing  in  common 
with  a  gentle  but  firm  resistance,  and  a  strong  demand 
on  their  self-control,  identical  with  love,  friendship,  and 
truth. 

If  there  is  any  experience  in  my  life  that  makes  me 
happy  and  proud  in  mankind,  it  is  the  fact  that  thirty 
and  forty  of  my  own  kindergarten  children,  ranging 
from  four  to  ten  years  of  age,  who  had  only  one 
spade,  one  rake,  one  hoe,  a  few  trowels,  and  two  or 
three  watering-pots  between  them  for  their  garden 
work,  never  quarreled,  and  never  was  there  any  com- 
plaint of  their  taking  each  other's  flowers.  The  limited 
number  of  tools  was,  besides,  purposely  arranged.  A 
nasturtium  growing  in  the  center  of  the  open  space 
from  which  a  number  of  triangularly  shaped  divisions 
started,  remained  uninjured  a  whole  summer.  Here  the 
general  educational  atmosphere  held  them  in  bounds ;  the 
children  were  fully  aware  how  much  I  lived  with  them, 


WHAT  IS   TOLD   BY   STATISTICS.  59 

enjoying  every  effort  to  strengthen  their  own  power  of 
resistance.  Our  ordinary  educational  system  uses  re- 
straint. As  seen  by  the  letter  of  Theane,  the  Greek 
mother,  this  theory  is  not  new,  but  restraint  is  only  of 
value  when  it  becomes  self-restraint. 

But  self-restraint  is  not  merely  to  be  exercised  in 
action,  but  in  the  underlying  motives  and  aims  of  actions. 
And  here  seemingly  we  fail  greatly.  Nothing  has  been 
left  more  to  chance  and  without  control  than,  for  exam- 
ple, human  amusements.  They  are  not  checked  with 
adults  or  children  till  they  become  injurious  to  individuals 
and  society.  All  that  lies  between  has  been  ignored. 
The  kindergarten  or  Froebel  system  makes  play  educa- 
tional. These  plays,  far  from  being  tedious  or  scholastic, 
bear  an  opposite  character.  Temperance  will  never  ac- 
complish its  end  until  almost  every  rum-shop  is  turned 
into  a  place  of  higher  amusement,  of  which  those  for 
bodily  exercises  will  be  most  prominent. 

These  places,  the  most  attractive  we  can  imagine, 
must  offer  means  to  satisfy  every  peculiarity  of  taste  in 
its  highest  degree.  They  must  be  presided  over  by  the 
grace  and  beauty  of  the  nations,  as  well  as  by  the  genius 
of  play  and  happiness.  They  must  be  open  to  families  as 
well  as  to  single  persons  of  either  sex.  Regarding  our 
own  body  the  temple  of  God,  the  perfection  of  body 
and  soul  must  found  its  edifices  in  structures  of  beauty 
and  eminence  equal  to  the  temple  of  God.  What 
sense  and  what  good  has  the  lessening  of  labor,  if  we 


60  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

remain    indifferent  to  the   use   of  the   time   gained   for 
recreation  ? 

Napoleon  I.  wrote  :  "  The  perfection  of  morals  is  the 
first  duty  of  the  state.  It  is,  therefore,  my  first  duty  to 
prevent  any  injury  to  morals,  or  to  build  up  institutions 
to  make  morals  prosper."  It  has  been  petitioned  to  close 
our  rum-shops.  Let  us  have  another  petition  to  provide 
mankind  —  even  the  poorest,  the  youngest,  and  the  oldest 
—  with  elevating  amusements. 


IV.    INCREASE   OP  INSANITY,  IDIOCY,  AND  JUVENILE 

SUICIDE. 

Not  less  painful  in  themselves  nor  in  their  consequences 
stand  the  handmaids  of  crime, — Insanity,  Idiocy,  and 
Suicide.*  In  the  paragraph,  "Creation  before  Birth,"  their 
origin  has  already  been  touched  upon,  referring  to  their 
vital  relation  to  parenthood  on  the  basis  of  physiological 
and  psychological  laws.  While  the  reference  to  these 
laws,  which  should  be  fully  understood  by  every  con- 
scious, truth-seeking  parent,  does  not  lie  directly  in  the 
line  of  this  book,  it  seems  impossible  to  withhold  the 
proof  of  the  increase  of  the  last-named  social  calamities, 
as  gained  from  official  reports. 

The  following  words   the  writer   received  from  a  dis- 

*  Dr.  Isaac  Kerlin.  Observations  made  by  Dr.  Mills  and  foreigners 
show  decided  analogies  between  the  brains  of  criminals  and  the  brains 
of  idiotic  and  imbecile  persons  not  under  criminal  accusation. 


INCREASE   OF   INSANITY.  61 

tinguished  physician :  "  The  problem  is,  How  shall  we 
adjust  the  man  animal  to  the  man  moral,  intellectual,  and 
spiritual?  One  thing  I  feel  sure  of  from  my  own  obser- 
vation ;  that  is,  public  sentiment  needs  education  upon 
all  these  matters,  so  that  parents  will  feel  a  responsibility 
that  seems  to  sit  very  lightly  upon  the  average  father  and 
mother  at  the  present  time." 

[From  the  Journal  of  the  American  Medical  Association.] 

"children  of  the  siege. 

"  Such  is  the  name  applied  in  France  to  those  unfortu- 
nate children  who  were  begotten  during  the  siege  of  Paris 
in  1871.  We  call  them  unfortunate  because  conceived  by 
mothers  who,  torn  alternately  by  the  conflicting  emotions 
of  hope  and  despair,  and  too  nearly  famished  themselves 
to  spare  requisite  nourishment  for  their  offspring  in  utero, 
were  nevertheless  compelled  to  yield  to  the  lust  of  half- 
drunken  husbands.  Begotten  of  such  parents  amid  the 
'horrors  of  the  Commune,'  these  children  of  the  siege 
came  into  the  world  puny  and  misshapen. 

"M.  Le  Grand  Saulle,  one  of  France's  most  celebrated 
alienists,  has  stated  that  out  of  ninety-two  such  children 
examined  by  him,  sixty-two  were  crippled  in  mind  and 
body ;  out  of  this  number  thirty-five  showed  malforma- 
tions, and  twenty-nine  were  imbecile." 

There  is  nothing  surprising  in  these  facts.  They  are 
so  impressive,  because  exaggerated  illustrations  of  what 


62  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

we  see  about  us  daily ;  children  born  of  want  and  intem- 
perance. Is  it  any  wonder  that  they  grow  up  to  beggary 
and  crime?  M.  Le  Grand,  in  the  same  address  delivered 
last  April,  brought  out  some  interesting  facts  concerning 
the  increase  of  insanity  since  the  Franco-Prussian  hostil- 
ities. 

"He  has  examined  35,000  insane  at  the  prefecture  in 
the  past  fourteen  years,  and  concludes  that  the  intense 
excitement  of  these  days  is  responsible  in  many  cases 
for  the  mental  alienation,  having  either  produced  it  di- 
rectly or  precipitated  its  manifestations.  Furthermore, 
he  attributes  the  increased  insanity  of  this  latter  half  of 
the  century  to  thirst  for  pleasure,  pursuit  of  wealth, 
speculation  in  stocks,  and  intemperance,  which  last  was 
the  exciting  cause  in  twenty-five  per  cent  of  his  cases. 
Again,  is  there  not  a  suggestive  lesson  here  for  us  in 
America  ?  Our  people  are  not  given  up  to  a  search  after 
enjoyment,  whatever  may  be  the  case  with  the  people  of 
France,  nor  is  there  here  that  consumption  of  absinthe 
which  is  accredited  with  the  speedy  production  of  seri- 
ous brain  disease ;  but  the  excitement  from  stock  ex- 
changes and  boards  of  trade,  high  pressure  in  other 
branches  of  business,  and  the  great  consumption  of 
alcohol,  are  evils  against  which  physicians,  as  conserva- 
tors of   public  health,  should  raise  a  vigorous  protest." 

At  a  meeting  held  lately  at  San  Francisco,  the  official 
statement  was  made,  that  if  the  present  ratio  should 
continue,  the  State  would  have  to  build  a  new  insane 


INCREASE   OF   INSANITY.  63 

asylum  every  three  years.  The  following  statement 
supplements  this  view  :  — 

In  fifty-seven  counties  of  New  York,  outside  of  New 
York  County  and  Kings  County  (Brooklyn),  there  are 
six  State  asylums  for  insane,  built  at  a  cost  of  $5,967,- 
732.94.  To  these  six  State  asylums  the  authorities  of 
fifty-seven  counties  send  their  insane,  making  a  total 
list  of  3,684  at  the  close  of  the  year  1883. 

The  counties  of  New  York  and  Kings  provide  for 
their  insane  in  their  own  way.  In  the  county  of  New 
York,  at  the  close  of  1871,  there  were  1,393  insane  per- 
sons in  the  asylums  on  Blackwell's  and  Randall's  islands. 
At  the  close  of  1882,  the  number  in  New  York  County 
had  increased  to  3,525. 

In  Kings  County,  at  the  close  of  year  1871,  there  were 
684.  At  the  close  of  1883  there  were  1,236.  In  Kings 
County,  in  the  period  named,  the  number  of  insane  per- 
sons had  doubled,  within  132.  In  New  York  County, 
during  the  same  period,  the  number  increased  from  1,393 
to  3,525,  or  739  more  than  doubled. 

Being  favored  with  Isaac  Kerlin's  instructive  report  on 
idiots  and  feeble-minded  children,  we  take  the  liberty  to 
quote  the  following  for  educational  consideration  :  — 

"  The  total  idiotic  population  of  the  United  States,  re- 
ported in  the  census  of  1880,  amounts  to  76,895,  which 
is  only  5,102  less  than  the  total  insane,  and  nearly  equals 
the  total  of  the  blind  and  deaf-mutes. 

"During  the  last  decade,  the  increase  of  population  has 


64  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

been  thirty  per  cent;  but  the  apparent  increase  in  the 
defective  or  afflicted  classes  has  been  a  little  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty-five  per  cent." — Compendium 
of  the  Tenth  Census  of  the  United  States,  1880,  page 
1659. 

The  ratio  in  returns  of  idiocy  for  1880  shows  an  in- 
crease of  two  hundred  and  nine  per  cent  over  the  returns 
of  1870. 

He  says  :  "  The  Juke  family  offers  an  educational  view 
which  does  not  seem  to  have  been  hitherto  taken.  Max 
and  Ada  Juke  rarely  fail  of  an  introduction  in  these  con- 
ferences, and  always,  it  seems  to  me,  under  a  cloud  of 
prejudice  that  may  bias  judgment  as  to  true  conditions. 
Any  close  study  of  these  unfortunate  people  reveals 
clearly  the  existence  of  a  neurotic  taint  as  the  rational 
explanation  of  their  crime,  pauperism,  and  bestiality, 
and  suggests  all  through  their  needed  protection  against 
themselves, 

"The  undoubtedly  weak-minded  Juke  sisters  married 
the  two  sons  of  Max,  who  is  known  as  M  a  drunken, 
eccentric,  and  lazy  ne'er-do-weel,"  who  leaves  a  large 
illegitimate  offspring.  It  is  not  strange  that  these  unions 
entailed  blindness,  pauperism,  prostitution,  and  crime 
upon  children  and  grandchildren.  The  record  of  Ada 
Juke,  through  the  marriage  of  her  first  legitimate  child, 
who  married  her  first  cousin,  is  only  less  fearful  than  that 
of  the  illegitimate  line.  Both,  in  the  sixth  generation, 
after  passing  through   the  darkest   and   most   loathsome 


INCKEASE   OF   INSANITY.  65 

channels  of  impurity,  are  represented  in  living  stocks  of 
half-witted  bastards,  criminals,  and  paupers,  who  will 
continue  to  roll  up  the  bill  of  expense  for  petty  crime  and 
misdemeanors  and  the  untold  expense  of  ruined  character, 
wherever  such  plague-spots  are  permitted.  Had  it  not 
been  too  early  in  the  history  of  society,  it  is  fairly  pre- 
sumptive that  the  twenty-one  grandchildren  of  Max  and 
Ada  might  have  been  recognized  as  unfit  members,  and, 
very  consistently  with  the  public  welfare  and  their  own 
best  interests,  have  been  detained  for  the  better  part  of 
their  lives  in  jails  or  sequestered  in  hospitals. 

"Another  view  of  this  serious  subject  confesses  that  the 
need  of  this  age  and  of  ages  to  come  is  paternal  govern- 
ment rather  than  an  ideal  impersonal  government,  —  a 
government  wisely  dealing  with  the  wants  of  individual 
man.  It  recognizes  that  a  very  large  portion  of  humanity 
is  still  in  its  swaddling-clothes,  or  scarcely  yet  beginning 
to  walk,  requiring  much  help  and  much  patience  before 
arriving  at  that  self-knowledge  which  guaranties  self-care. 
It  holds  that,  in  our  present  development,  government, 
when  best  for  the  common  weal,  should  assume  the  rela- 
tion, not  of  almoner,  but  of  parent  to  its  unfortunate 
children,  whose  only  fault  consists  in  not  being  born 
right. 

"  There  is  another  sorry  phalanx  of  misery,  —  the  aban- 
doned prostitutes  of  our  cities,  —  recoiling  on  the  commu- 
nity for  its  laxity  of  law  and  surveillance,  and  contaminat- 
ing how  many  births  of  even  lawful  wedlock  !     Who  are 


66  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

these  prostitutes?  A  class  so  feeble  in  will  power,  so 
ignorant  and  of  such  uncontrollable  emotions,  that  it  is  no 
forced  conclusion  that  very  many  are  unsound  and  irre- 
sponsible, the  sinned  against  rather  than  the  sinners. 

"And  yet  another  host  is  darkening  the  whole  land,  — 
the  alcoholic  inebriates,  —  more  numerous  than  all  the 
insane,  idiotic,  blind,  and  deaf-mutes  together,  re-enfor- 
cing the  ranks  of  pauperism  by  other  legions,  and  sowing 
a  birthright  of  misery  unto  children  of  the  third  and 
fourth  generations.  Expert  physicians  are  telling  us  — 
and  daily  their  testimony  is  better  received  —  that  alco- 
holism is  a  neurosis,  amenable  to  medical  measures  under 
the  regime  of  complete  isolation  from  provoking  causes. 
This  is  wiser  than  to  call  it  a  crime,  without  depriving 
the  criminal  of  his  misused  liberty. 

"To  the  practical,  it  would  seem  that  the  functions  of 
government  are  not  discharged  toward  its  peace-loving, 
frugal,  and  law-abiding  citizens  so  long  as  these  disor- 
derly, contaminating,  and  misery-breeding  elements  have 
share  and  share  alike  of  that  "  personal  liberty  under  the 
Constitution  "  which  should  attach  only  to  personal  relia- 
bility. Under  the  ethics  of  law  and  religion,  they  are 
almost  unreached.  The  so-called  education  of  the  schools 
is  admitted  in  the  oldest  communities  to  furnish  a  great 
many  of  its  pupils  only  a  better  armament  for  mischief. 
So  that,  education,  law,  and  religion  failing,  shall  we  not 
reform  our  conclusions  as  to  the  nature  of  the  ills  from 
which  we  suffer  ?    May  not  the  study  of  the  humble  idiot 


INCREASE    OF   INSANITY.  67 

and  imbecile  in  our  institutions  aid  us  in  discovering 
some  analogies  heretofore  undreamed  of,  and  perhaps  a 
healing  to  the  so-called  corrupt,  and  the  only  safety  to 
the  healthy  be  found  in  an  arbitrary  but  legal  isolation 
of  the  unfit  ? 

"  There  is  no  field  in  political  economy  which  can  be 
worked  to  better  advantage  for  the  diminution  of  crime, 
pauperism,  and  insanity  than  that  of  idiocy.  The  early 
lecognition  of  some  of  its  special,  upper,  and  more  dan- 
gerous forms  should  be  followed  by  their  withdrawal 
from  their  unwholesome  environments  and  their  perma- 
nent sequestration  before  they  are  pronounced  criminals, 
and  have,  by  the  tuition  of  the  slums,  acquired  a  pre- 
cocity that  deceives  even  experts.  Only  a  small  percent- 
age should  ever  be  returned  to  the  community,  and  then 
only  under  conditions  that  would  preclude  the  probability 
of  their  assuming  social  relations  under  marriage,  or 
becoming  sowers  of  moral  and  physical  disease  under 
the  garb  of  professional  tramps  and  degraded  prosti- 
tutes. 

"How  many  of  your  criminals,  inebriates,  and  prosti- 
tutes are  congenital  imbeciles?  How  many  of  your 
insane  are  really  feeble-minded  or  imbecile  persons,  way- 
ward and  neglected  in  their  early  training,  and  at  last 
conveniently  housed  in  hospitals,  after  having  wrought 
mischief,  entered  social  relations,  reproduced  their  kind, 
defied  law,  antagonized  experts  and  lawyers,  puzzled 
philanthropists,  and  in  every  possible  manner  retaliated 


68  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

on  their  progenitors  for  their  origin  and  on  the  com- 
munity for  their  misapprehension?  How  many  of  your 
incorrigible  boys,  lodged  in  the  houses  of  refuge  to  be 
half  educated  in  letters  and  wholly  unreached  in  morals, 
are  sent  out  into  the  community  the  idiots  they  were  at 
the  beginning,  only  more  powerfully  armed  for  mischief? 
And  pauperism  breeding  other  paupers,  what  is  it  but 
imbecility  let  free  to  do  its  mischief? 

"We  should  not  deplore,  and  we  may  certainly  antici- 
pate, a  steady  statistical  increase  of  insanity  and  idiocy 
for  the  next  four  or  five  decades ;  even  should  it  be  at  the 
rate  of  hundreds  per  centum  increase  for  each  census,  it 
will  indicate  not  so  much  absolute  increase  of  the  diseases 
named,  as  a  broadening  of  definitions  and  better  analysis 
of  conditions,  —  common-sense  and  a  higher  Christianity 
dealing  with  defective  and  irresponsible  people." 

What  can  be  done?  Man,  with  his  burning  heart, 
thinks  of  the  almost  eighty  thousand  children  whose 
only  fault  exists  in  not  being  born  well.  To  what  can 
he  appeal  but  to  education?  Not  that  education  which 
presents  mere  learning,  mere  knowing.  It  is  action, 
not  mercenary  but  moral  action,  and  its  fountain  spring 
is  Conscious  Motherhood. 

Unable  to  find  some  reliable  statistics  on  juvenile 
suicide,  it  may  be  said  that,  according  to  European  state- 
ment, their  number  is  steadily  increasing. 


UNITY    IN    PARENTHOOD.  69 


V.        UNITY      IN     PARENTHOOD      THE      NUCLEUS      OF 
MORAL  AND   PHYSICAL  PERFECTION   OF  MAN. 

"  Know  yourself "  stood  out  in  solemn  letters  over  the 
entrance  of  the  oracle  at  Delphi,  two  thousand  years 
ago,  to  be  re-read  in  flaming  words  by  the  progressive 
spirit  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Self-knowledge  is  the 
appeal  heading  each  page  in  the  science  of  man.  Self- 
knowledge  is  the  aim  of  the  endless  labor  of  statistics 
to  warn  against  growing  evils  and  their  causes.  Self- 
knowledge  finally  is  hailed  by  woman,  the  mother,  throw- 
ing new  lights  on  her  powers  and  her  duties.  Not  for 
mere  "woman's  rights,"  but  as  the  indisputable  com- 
mand of  science  to  step  forward  with  independent 
thoughts  and  actions  for  the  well-being  of  the  human 
race,  of  which  she  is  the  bearer.  This  last  great  office 
includes  the  fulfillment  in  and  her  connection  with  a 
partnership,  without  which  the  highest  gifts  of  her 
nature  would  have  been  left  without  completion.  And 
it  is  in  this  natural  completion  that  we  recognize  a  special 
qualification  called  motherhood. 

The  process  which  leads  from  the  poetically  veiled 
nature  of  the  virgin  to  the  free  unfolding  of  mother- 
hood has  aroused  in  man  through  all  ages  the  spiritual 
and  ideal  conception  of  womanhood.  We  find  them  still 
connected  in  a  thousand  individual  forms  with  the  daily 
dealings  of  savage  tribes,  while  our  modern  habits  lose 
from  day  to  day  the  character  of  a  natural,  not  fashion- 


70  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

able,  conception  and  restriction  among  the  two  sexes;  a 
fact  which  can  not  be  cast  aside,  considering  its  grave 
consequences  toward  a  higher  conscious  unity  in  par- 
enthood. History  tells  that  the  Visigoth  who  touched 
the  fingers  of  the  free  woman  had  to  pay  600  derniers ; 
her  arms,  1,200  derniers;  her  breast,  1,800  derniers; 
and  that  the  man  who  destroyed  her  virginity  was  made 
her  slave  for  life,  with  all  his  property. 

The  high  estimation  of  the  free  woman,  the  trust 
of  one  man  in  another  man,  of  which  our  age  shows 
decidedly  the  opposite,  was  beautifully  illustrated  by 
a  king  of  the  Normans,  who  sent  his  only  daughter 
away  to  be  educated  by  his  unmarried  friend,  a 
former.  These  focts  have  been  preserved  in  the 
records  of  ancient  history,  and  prove  the  purity  and 
chastity  of  the  Teutons  and  the  Scandinavian  races, 
of  which  Tacitus  can  not  speak  highly  enough ;  facts 
which  must  fill  the  heart  of  every  woman  with  pride 
and  hope,  because  they  reveal  the  higher  qualities  in 
i;an,  whose  innate  respect  for  motherhood  is  even 
exemplified  to  him  by  the  actions  of  the  male  animal. 

Or  is  it  true,  what  Maudsley  says,  that  man  actually 
is  so  far  from  nature  that  he  stands  far  below  the  ani- 
mal?—  a  saying  the  better  woman  can  and  will  hardly 
believe.  But  she  cannot  deny,  from  her  personal  daily 
observation  of  life,  which  is  illustrated  in  our  belle 
literature,  — the  silliness  of  woman,  the  pettiness  and 
narrowness    of    her    aims,    the   want   of    faith    in    her 


UNITY   IN   PARENTHOOD.  71 


higher  capacities  even  by  her  own  sex,  —  that  if  man 
comes  not  up  to  the  desirable  standard,  woman  is  not 
less  what  she  might  and  it  is  hoped  will  be.  But  as 
Josephine  Butler  claims,  regarding  our  young  men  in 
society,  "as  long  as  selection  is  renounced,  and  even 
barefaced  vice  is  no  disqualification  to  their  being  well 
received  in  the  wealthy  drawing-rooms,  the  young  men 
feel  and  improve  all  the  privileges  of  their  position. 
They  even  become  careless  of  hiding  w7hat  is  no  longer 
reprobated,  and  they  begin  to  speak  of  and  to  be  seen 
talking  to  the  notorious  harlots  of  the  day.  When  the 
best  sanction  of  social  morality  —  the  reprobation  of 
vice  by  woman  —  is  cast  aside  in  the  highest  circles 
presenting  the  moral  culture  of  our  sex,  who  can 
tell  how  widely  the  encouragement  may  act?"  Savages 
claim  that  a  queen  governs  well  under  male  assistance, 
while  men  become  enfeebled  by  women.  Woman  had 
a  female  senate  in  the  empire  of  Rome.  Eminent 
men  of  all  ages  had  faith  in  woman.  Goethe,  in  his 
immortal  sentence,  "the  ever-womanly  draws  us  up," 
refers  to  the  law  of  nature  reborn  in  every  woman, 
yet  by  countless  years  of  unnatural  conditions  lead- 
ing woman  from  the  height  of  self-conscious  woman- 
hood to  its  deepest  degradation,  as  read  in  the  follow- 
ing laws,  still  found  in  existence  in  our  sister  republic, 
France,  and   in   England  :  — 

1.     Toute    seduction    est    impunie    (seduction    is    not 
punishable). 


72  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

2.  Toute  promise  de  mariage  est  nulle  (neither  is 
the  promise  of  marriage) . 

3.  Les  enfants  natural  reste  a  la  charge  ties  meres 
(illegitimate  children  are  to  be  supported  exclusively 
by  the  mother). 

4.  Le  droit  de  correction  —  le  droit  absolu  sur  les 
actes  —  de  la  femme  —  meme  sur  le  corps  est  au  mart 
(right  of  punishment  —  absolute  control  over  all  actions 
of  woman  —  even  that  of  the  body  —  belong  to  man). 

5.  Le  devoir  conjugal  explique  ce  droit  (conjugal 
submission  explains  this  "  right ") . 

In  the  last  Woman's  Journal  we  read  as  follows  :  — 

A  Nova  Scotia  mother,  Mrs.  McPherson,  placed  her  three- 
year-old  daughter  temporarily  in  the  Halifax  Infants'  Home  for 
safe  keeping.  Without  her  knowledge,  the  managers  of  the 
home  gave  the  child  to  a  family  living  at  a  distance,  to  be 
adopted.  When  the  mother  discovered  what  had  been  done, 
she  applied  for  possession  of  her  child.  Judge  Smith,  of  the 
Nova  Scotia  Supreme  Court,  has  just  decided  the  case  against 
her,  on  the  ground  that  the  mother  has  no  locus  standi;  that  she 
has  no  right  to  the  custody  of  her  child  so  long  as  her  husband 
may  be  alive.  Mrs.  McPherson's  husband  deserted  her  several 
years  ago. 

We  do  not  aim  to  refer  to  the  need  of  special  laics 
concerning  women  and  their  necessary  improvements,  but 
we  know  that  America,  with  her  glorious  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  her  demand  of  equal  rights  to  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,  in  case  she  is  to  become  the  God- 
ordained  and  first  nation,  to  solve  on  free  soil  the  prob- 


UNITY   IN  PARENTHOOD.  73 

lem  of  social  equality,  and  not  to  turn  her  great  future 
into  a  most  fearful  chaos  of  human  passions  and  destruc- 
tive forces,  has  most  of  all  to  revise  those  laws  which 
touch  the  central  germ  of  her  higher  or  lower  existence, 
namely,  the  home!  Nothing  but  the  home  and  the  puri- 
fying influence  in  society  can  change,  frankly  spoken,  our 
morally  criminal  condition.  What  result  can  a  state  ex- 
pect, though  it  may  be  the  grandest  on  the  globe,  which 
does  not  by  all  possible  means  protect  the  purity  of  the 
home  and  the  rights  of  the  mothers,  the  bearers  of  her 
children?  Why  shall  she  have  to  beg  through  a  vjhole 
generation  for  her  equal  rights?  Let  the  mother  be  set 
free,  permitted  to  think  and  to  act  by  reason;  let  her  be 
made  responsible  in  her  duty  as  mother  for  the  shaping 
and  molding  of  the  coming  race,  assisting  and  guiding 
where  she  has  no  voice  at  present,  and  her  innate  powers 
of  motherhood  will  lead  her  back  to  former  dignity 
and  moral  leadership. 

Complaining  of  man,  we  may  frankly  confess  the  per- 
haps strange  doctrine,  that  it  is  only  through  woman, 
through  enlightened  motherhood,  that  man  will  be  raised 
and  partly  freed  from  the  evils  under  which  he  is  born. 
The  quotation  from  Josephine  Butler  tells  a  great  deal  in 
a  few  words.  This  condition,  and  the  better  man  agrees 
with  it,  has  to  be  changed  before  we  can  expect  "  that 
unity  in  parenthood"  absolutely  necessary  to  perfect  the 
human  race,  morally  and  physically.  It  is  the  mother 
who    must  become  enabled  to  judge   the  value,  and  to 


74  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

select,  by  means  of  this  value,  in  the  highest  loving  inspi- 
ration, the  man  suitable  to  be  the  ideal  for  her  child, 
may  he  be  a  prince,  or  the  simple  laborer  gaining  his 
bread  from  day  to  day.  Do  not  say  this  condition  is  a 
dream.  Ask  any  highly  organized  man,  who  takes  the 
wife  of  his  heart,  if  he  does  not  identify  her  value  and  her 
lovingness  with  the  capacities  she  will  bring  to  his  home 
as  the  mother  of  his  coming  children.  He  knows  very 
well  that  no  wealth,  no  rank,  and  no  earthly  structures, 
however  beautiful  they  may  be,  can  give  him  the  home, 
namely,  the  spirit  of  the  home.  We  complain  of  di- 
vorces and  kindred  topics.  Why  is  it,  then,  that  a  man 
can  be  divorced  one  month,  and  be  remarried  the  next 
to  a  fair  woman?  Why  is  it  that  a  man  can  be  divorced 
even  tivice,  and  find  open  arms  which  he  may  leave  soon 
for  his  third  choice?  The  practical  conclusion  formed  by 
the  writer  on  this  subject  is  presented  in  the  following 
petition,  with  the  desire  to  accomplish  practical  results  :  — 

Recognizing  in  your  honorable  body  the  power  of  regulating 
and  directing  the  general  educational  advancement  of  our 
state,  we,  the  mothers  and  daughters  of  America,  trust,  in 
coming  to  you,  that  you  may  use  this  power  justly  in  helping 
us  to  reach  and  to  perfect  those  qualifications  which  form  the 
nucleus  of  woman's  sphere,  namely,  the  child's  earliest  moral, 
mental,  and  physical  unfolding.  To  this  end  we,  the  under- 
signed, take  the  liberty  to  present  the  following  to  your  favora- 
ble consideration :  — 

Whereas,  it  is  the  characteristic  tendency  of  our  age  to  free 
the    female    sex  —  the    other    half    of    humanity  —  from    the 


UNITY   IN   PARENTHOOD.  75 

instinctive  passiveness  and  lethargy  toward  the  outer  world, 
thus  leading  it,  by  its  vocation  as  the  bearer  and  first  educator 
of  the  human  race,  to  equal  responsibility  with  man  ;  and 

Wliereas,  we  have  learned  that  to  be  a  teacher  a  scientific 
preparation  is  needed,  but  to  be  a  mother  and  a  teacher  in  one 
is  left  to  chance,  we  find  the  vocation  of  some  women  more 
considered  than  the  vocation  of  all  women ;  and 

WJiereas,  this  is  an  injury  to  the  race  at  large,  and  to  the 
welfare  of  the  state  in  particular,  which  depends  on  the  moral, 
intellectual,  and  physical  condition  of  the  individuals  and  their 
first  educators,  it  becomes  evident  that  if  possible  such  pro- 
vision should  be  made  by  the  state  or  by  society  as  is  neces- 
sary to  prepare  all  women,  and  likewise  men,  for  their  natural 
position  as  mothers  and  fathers ;  and 

Whereas,  the  connected  sciences  of  our  day,  promoting  the 
highest  culture  of  man,  claim  that  the  spiritual  and  physical 
development  should  be  blended  in  one,  and  that  such  develop- 
ment beginning  with  the  first  day  in  life,  and  before  life,  — 
the  basis  of  all  later  doing  and  knowing,  —  belongs  to  the 
mother  and  to  home  influence  ;  and 

WJiereas,  this  motherly  development,  based  on  the  understand- 
ing of  the  laws  of  nature  in  general,  and  of  the  nature  of  the 
child  in  particular,  resting  largely  on  the  studies  of  physiology, 
psychology,  and  pedagogy,  is  destined  for  the  first  time  in 
history  to  unite  the  highest  scientific  efforts  of  both  sexes  to 
one  end : 

Therefore,  the  question  arises,  How  can  the  state  or  society 
furnish  such  preparation  as  will  enable  our  young  girls  and 
boys  to  gain,  besides  a  general  education,  a  special  education 
for  the  understanding  of  the  sacred  duties  of  motherhood  and 
fatherhood  ? 

This  should  be  done  — 

By  connecting  with  our  higher  school  grades  and  normal 


76  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

schools  a  special  connected  curriculum  of  studies,  as  follows : 
Anthropology,  psychology,  and  the  science  of  education ;  his- 
tory of  educational  theories,  of  law  and  ethics,  and  hygiene ; 
Froebel's  system  and  its  connection  with  the  earliest  develop- 
ment of  the  human  race,  physically,  morally,  and  intellectually  ; 
the  attendance  of  suitable  kindergartens,  cooking  schools,  and 
visits  to  children's  hospitals. 

By  establishing  in  our  universities  special  educational  chairs 
or  courses,  designed  to  prepare  special  teachers,  such  as  are 
needed  to  furnish  the  above-named  instruction  in  our  schools 
and  normal  institutes. 

By  encouraging  able  lecturers  to  diffuse  new  light  on  this 
most  important  problem  of  man. 

Not  until  the  science  of  life  and  man  is  equally  understood  by 
men  as  well  as  by  women  ; 

Not  until  this  understanding  brings  equal  weight  of  responsi- 
bility to  men  as  well  as  to  women  ; 

Not  until  the  preparation  for  fatherhood  and  motherhood 
forms  a  lasting  curriculum  in  our  higher  school  instruction  and 
in  our  universities,  can  we  expect  a  sound  and  lasting  progress 
of  mankind. 

Thus  elevated  by  knowledge  and  the  sense  of  duty, 
higher  moral  responsibility  will  create  laws  unconceived 
in  our  time  of  blind  ignorance  on  the  most  vital  topics 
concerning  man  in  his  whole  physical,  mental,  and  moral 
being.  The  laws  of  to-day  directed  to  the  keeping  of 
the  existence  of  man  will  be  evolved  into  the  preven- 
tion of  the  existence  of  man.  While  "crime"  stands  out 
in  bold  letters  concerning  the  first,  "crime"  will  not  be 
less   the   name   for   bringing    life   into   existence,    where 


UNITY    IN    PARENTHOOD.  77 

certain  conditions  —  upon  which  society  will  watch  with 
severity  and  judgment — are  not  fullfiled.  "The  increase 
of  divorces  during  the  past  thirty  years  is  an  ominous 
symptom,"  says  Dr.  Dorchester.  They  have  doubled  in 
our  country,  and  this  very  likely  presents  the  average 
status  quo  in  civilization.  What  can  and  will  be  its 
sole  remedy  ?  Nothing  but  the  union  in  an  enlightened 
ideal  parenthood.  The  "onward  creative"  powers  of  the 
world  are  "bisexual."  Only  one  of  these  powers  has 
been  given,  heretofore,  the  full  liberty  of  action, — the 
power  of  the  male  sex  to  govern  the  female  and  her 
child.  The  deciding  instead  of  the  considering,  the 
defensive  instead  of  the  uniting  forces,  the  submitting 
instead  of  equal  reasoning  forces,  have  prevented  an  equi- 
librium of  justice,  freedom,  and  higher  love.  The  bias 
of  parenthood  was,  in  law,  an  act  of  submission.  In  the 
name  of  childhood,  let  it  be  evolved  into  a  free  but 
indissoluble  union  of  love,  friendship,  and  estimation. 


CHAPTEK  III. 

THE  CHILD'S  BIGHT  TO  AN  EABLY  EDUCATIONAL  UN- 
FOLDING.. BEGINNING  AT  THE  CBADLE,  BASED  ON  A 
SCIENTIFIC  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  CHILD'S  NATUBE. 

I.    "Wilhelm  Preyer  and  Friedrich  Froebel.  —  II.    Inviolate  Childhood  — 
III.    Children's  Diaries. 

I     WILHELM  PREYER  AND  FRIEDRICH  FROEBEL. 

W.  Preyer,  Professor  of  Physiology  and  Psychology 
at  Jena,  furnishes  a  scientific  record  on  the  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  development  of  his  son,  from  his  first 
hour  till  he  was  three  years  old.  Preyer's  merit  con- 
sists in  the  fact  that  while  he  intended  to  write  a  scien- 
tific book  for  the  learned  world,  he  wrote  a  book  for 
mothers.  The  previous  idea,  that  a  mother's  devotion 
and  instincts  were  sufficient  to  guide  her  in  forming  and 
molding  the  human  race,  vanishes  before  the  statistics 
of  the  causes  and  effects  of  crime,  idiocy,  insanity,  pov- 
erty, and  suicide.  The  woman  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
equally  repressed  and  oppressed  by  her  ignorance  and 
vagueness  of  her  knowledge,  is  ready  to  welcome  from 
the  depths  of  her  inspired  nature  Preyer's  most  valuable 
work.  Woman  of  this  age  has  to  learn  that  "  to  save 
man"  is  "to  study  man."     Preyer's  work  leads  the  way. 


WILHELM    PREYER    AND   FRIEDRICH   FROEBEL.  79 

Once  knowing  this  book,  no  woman,  no  mother,  can 
fail  to  follow  its  guidance,  which  leads  into  the  sanctum 
of  the  child's  body  and  soul,  for  which  the  mother  is 
made  responsible.  Here  childhood  and  motherhood, 
without  losing  their  former  love,  glory,  or  poetry,  have 
united  in  a  solemn  demand  for  justice  and  law,  based 
on  science.  JVb  higher  appeal  was  ever  made  to  woman. 
The  religion  of  faith  has  called  forth  a  religion  of  action, 
—  a  religion  of  action  which,  by  directing  and  elevating 
woman's  creative  forces,  turns  them  into  a  moral  reve- 
lation to  mankind.  May  God  help  and  bless  her !  To 
this  end  the  writer  offers  to  women  and  mothers  a  trans- 
lation of  Preyer's  work.  His  work  combines  a  lengthy 
observation  of  experience  of  infants  in  public  institu- 
tions, and  an  extensive  comparison  with  other  writers 
on  the  subject.  It  consists  of -extended  and  detailed 
psycho-physiological  observations,  connected  with  the 
study  of  the  gradual  educational  development  of  his 
child.  In  this  work  is  combined  the  educational  influ- 
ences of  two  authorities,  each  strengthening  and  com- 
pleting the  other,  namely,  W.  Preyer  and  Friedrich 
Froebel. 

Friedrich  Froebel  was  born  in  April,  1782.  It  is  a 
remarkable  coincidence  that  Prof.  Preyer's  work,  "The 
Soul  of  the  Child,"  was  published  in  the  same  year  in 
which  Froebel's  centennial  anniversary  was  celebrated,  — 
remarkable  on  account  of  the  similarity  of  their  concep- 
tion of  the  nature,  the  physiological  and  psychological 


SO  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

educational  needs  and  restrictions  of  the  child.  Froebel 
had  not  studied  medicine,  neither  was  he  prepared  with 
lens  in  hand  to  look  into  the  mysterious,  nervous 
texture  of  the  human  body.  But  his  intuitive  concep- 
tion of  the  wants  of  harmonious  development  directed 
his  keen  observation  of  the  outer  life  to  the  inward 
nature  of  things,  and  reciprocally  their  outward  relations 
to  cause  and  effect.  He  arrested  his  thoughts  before 
the  great  stillness  of  nature.  Her  grandeur,  her  beauty 
and  government  by  law,  became  his  teachers.  Identi- 
fying the  lack  of  harmony  with  man's  ignorance  of  the 
laws  of  nature,  he  set  himself  to  study  these  laws. 
Wishing  to  lead  man  back  to  nature  from  which  he 
sprung,  he  became  a  philosophical  and  practical  student 
of  man  and  nature.  Imbued  with  the  educational  prin- 
ciples of  the  ancients,  strengthened  by  the  views  of 
Locke,  Comenius,  Rattich,  Basedow,  and  Jean  Jacque 
Rousseau,  he  at  last  found  the  idealization  of  his  views 
in  Pestalozzi's  method.  He  lived  for  more  than  a  year 
under  the  roof  of  this  great  teacher,  and  came  fully  to 
agree  with  him  that  the  mother  should  be  recognized  as 
the  first  and  natural  educator  of  the  child ;  a  conviction 
which  Pestalozzi  illustrated  so  touchingly  in  his  story 
of  "Leonard  and  Gertrude,"  and  by  his  lecture  when 
eighty-two  years  old,  "on  the  simplest  way  to  educate 
the  child  from  the  cradle  to  its  sixth  year,"  —  a  lec- 
ture which,  at  the  time,  filled  all  eyes  with  tears. 
Froebel,    recognizing  his   natural   vocation    as   an    edu- 


WILHELM   PREYER   AND   FRIEDRICH   FROEBEL.  81 

cator,    prepared    himself   earnestly    for   this    responsible 
office 

Around  the  bright  bivouac  fires  in  the  famous  camps 
of  the  Luetzower  Corps,  which  was  composed  of  the 
best  young  men  of  the  country,  he  found  a  warm  en- 
couragement. He  gained  strength  from  an  ideal  and 
lasting  friendship,  combining  effort  and  strength  with 
faith,  joy,  and  hope,  which  grew  and  developed  from 
the  blind  enthusiasm  of  youth  into  the  earnest,  practi- 
cal labor  and  endurance  of  manhood ;  a  friendship  that 
knew  but  one  head,  one  heart,  and  one  noble,  united 
aim,  which  was  "  to  serve  mankind."  Such  friendships, 
often  formed  among  the  Teutonic  race,  seem  like  echoes 
from  the  dark,  green,  everlasting,  sacred  forests  of  old, 
whose  legends  tell  of  a  devotion  and  sacrifice  for  which 
our  busy  life  has  hardly  time  or  taste.  In  1816, 
Froebel,  assisted  by  his  two  friends,  opened  in  a  simple 
farm-house  his  educational  institute  at  Griesheim,  in 
Thuringia ;  Middendorf  and  Langsthal,  his  two  friends, 
serving  and  maintaining  this  establishment  at  unparal- 
leled sacrifice.  Here  also  lived  Froebel's  wife,  a  woman 
of  high  rank,  brought  up  in  luxury.  When  assistants 
were  engaged,  there  was  never  a  fixed  arrangement  as 
to  salary,  the  income  being  used  but  for  their  barest 
necessities.  So  hard  were  the  times  that  chalk-marks 
Avere  often  made  on  the  bread,  to  indicate  the  amount 
that  was  to  be  eaten  each  day  of  the  large  loaves,  baked 
at  the  institute.     One  coat  served  the   four  friends  in 


82  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

turn  as  a  best  garment.  Mr.  H.  Barop,  who  entered 
as  an  assistant  in  1802,  and  who  still  holds  the  princi- 
palship  of  the  mother  institute  now  at  Keilhau,  Thu- 
ringia,  a  most  distinguished  university  college  for  boys, 
did  not  see  his  own  child  after  it  was  four  years  old, 
as  he  was  called  away  to  establish  similar  educational 
institutes  in  Switzerland  and  elsewhere.  Land  and 
several  large  buildings  were  given  Froebel  and  his  dis- 
ciples for  new  institutions.  In  the  heart  of  a  peaceful 
and  picturesque  landscape,  surrounded  by  the  beauty 
and  undimmed  freshness  of  nature,  far  from  the  restless 
noise,  the  young  child  and  its  physical  and  mental  needs 
became  the  fructifier  and  inspirer  of  thought  to  this 
unselfish,  high-minded  body  of  men  and  women.  Com- 
parison made  here  between  the  children  born  in  their 
own  family  circle  and  those  entering  the  collegiate 
course,  showed  very  clearly  the  lack  of  early  develop- 
ment of  mind  and  body  during  the  first  years  of  the 
children  from  the  outside  world.  Froebel  himself  had 
lost  his  mother  when  a  baby.  His  instinctive  desire 
for  harmony,  beauty,  and  mother's  love  led  him  quite 
early  to  the  observation  of  the  divine  beauty  in  na- 
ture and  plant  life.  With  reverence  and  acceptance  he 
learned  to  recognize  the  divine  intention  in  creating 
similarities.  In  a  most  pious  submission  to  the  supreme 
will,  he  sought  for  light  in  studying  the  laws  of  harmony, 
that  he  might  remedy  the  discords  of  life  which  filled 
his  mind  and  thoughts.     As  a  boy,  from  seven  to  eight 


WILHELM   PREYER   AND   FRIEDRICH   FROEBEL.  83 

years  old,  his  tastes  were  peculiarly  fostered  by  his 
botanical  studies  in  the  forests  of  Thuringia,  under 
the  care  of  a  forester. 

Thus  so  favorably  predisposed,  aided,  and  trained, 
Froebel  learned  to  recognize  in  each  child  a  new  educa- 
tional problem,  to  be  solved  according  to  its  nature. 
Studies  directed  to  the  action  of  mothers  were  valued 
by  him  as  crystallized  practical  experiences.  He  proved 
them  to  involve  conformity  to  his  views  of  the  child's 
natural  wants ;  thus  leading  him,  when  at  the  height  of 
his  influence,  to  devote  the  rest  of  his  life  to  the  search 
of  a  method  for  a  harmonious  human  unfolding,  begin- 
ning  at  the  cradle.  It  is  a  great  error  to  suppose  that 
Froebel's  system  is  only  applicable  to  very  early  life. 
Froebel  bases  the  fundamental  principles  of  education 
on  the  universal  laws  of  nature,  demonstrated  in  their 
manifoldness,  and  recognized  in  mankind  by  individual 
forces.  He  therefore  demands  a  methodical  unification 
in  education,  in  order  to  reach  the  divine  through  a  unifi- 
cation of  action.  Froebel  says:  "All  that  exists  mani- 
fests an  eternal  law.  This  law  forms  the  unity  of  all 
objects  in  nature  of  which  man  is  a  part ;  and  however 
the  stages  may  differ,  they  come  under  one  universal 
law  of  development,  through  a  gradual  process  of  per- 
fection or  deterioration ;  leading  either  from  the  chaotic 
unformed  to  the  formed,  or  else  going  back  to  chaos. 
These  universal  laws  manifested  in  plant  and  animal  life 
we  recognize  equally  in  the  coiled-up  forces  of  the  acorn 


84  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

as  in  the  developed  forces  of  the  gigantic  oak-tree. 
The  slightest  interruption  in  the  growth,  the  slightest 
disturbance  of  the  healthy  condition  of  the  mother  germ 
or  the  baby  plant,  will  cripple  the  whole  plant,  root  by 
root,  stem  by  stem,  flower  by  flower,  fruit  by  fruit." 

Recognizing  that  these  organic  laws  of  nature  are 
applicable  to  men,  as  disclosed  by  each  step  of  a  true 
science  of  man,  Froebel  perceived  the  methodical  devel- 
opment of  the  man  in  the  child.  The  perception  of  this 
unity  of  forces  directed  to  the  perfecting  of  man's  nature 
led  Froebel  to  anticipate  a  gradual  development  of  man, 
through  emotional  and  intellectual  activities  in  which  the 
child  should  be  recognized  as  part  of  a  whole,  and  as  a 
whole  in  its  parts.  In  this  higher  unity,  Froebel  foresaw, 
not  only  the  present  psychological  conception  of  man, 
but  also  the  present  moral  standard.  In  spite  of  the 
existing  diversities  of  our  life,  the  ideal  watchword  of 
our  time  is  "unity":  unity  in  body  and  mind;  unity 
and  equality  in  law,  in  responsibility,  in  labor,  in  hope 
and  fear :  unity  in  perfection  and  elevation ;  unity  in 
nature  and  man,  is  the  moral,  pedagogical,  and  religious 
solution  of  our  time.  Froebel's  educational  theories  and 
practice,  completed  by  Preyer's  practical,  psychological, 
and  pedagogical  observations,  meet  the  present  anthropo- 
logical and  moral  needs.  These  two  great  authorities, 
approaching  the  subject  from  opposite  points,  seem  to 
open  a  new  pedagogical  era  in  the  bringing  home  to 
men's  hearts  a  conviction  of  these  high  educational  truths, 


INVIOLATE    CHILDHOOD.  85 

and  it  is  the  writer's  conviction  of  the  necessity  of  a  uni- 
versal insight  into  the  depths  of  these  truths  that  has 
urged  her  to  attempt  to  merge  the  utterances  of  these 
two  authorities  with  her  own  life  experience  in  education 
in  the  following  chapters. 

n.    INVIOLATE   CHILDHOOD. 

Inviolate  childhood  is  heaven  on  earth.  Without 
riches,  without  honor,  without  merit,  without  science  or 
art,  childhood  finds  the  world  full  of  priceless  treasures 
and  of  ineffable  wonders. 

Given  a  few  broken  pieces  of  glass,  a  flower,  a  fruit,  a 
colored  string,  a  doll,  and  out  of  them  the  baby  imagina- 
tion constructs  an  immeasurable  happiness. 

A  few  anointed  ones  of  the  human  race  have  kept  this 
power  of  creation, — of  symbolizing  alike  the  mysteries 
and  the  realities  of  life ;  we  call  them  our  ordained  poets 
and  artists,  and  receive  with  reverence  the  gifts  they 
bring  us  from  their  childhood. 

The  child  knows  naught  of  earthly  gains  and  losses ; 
it  knows  no  dread  of  death ;  to  it,  life  and  peace  are 
without  end.  The  suppleness  of  its  body  coincides  with 
the  suppleness  of  its  soul.  For  him,  the  stone  lives ; 
and,  like  the  kiss  of  his  mother  on  his  ruby  lips,  like  the 
flowers  and  ribbons  with  which  he  adorns  his  obedient 
playmate,  the  dog,  belongs  equally  in  the  great  brother- 
hood of  things  of  which  he  is  himself  apari^^  Compare 

%>*   OT  THE     X-^ 

university: 


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86  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

his  faith,  his  hope,  his  love,  his  simplicity  and  happiness, 
yes,  his  spontaneous  altruism,  with  our  own  aggressive 
selfishness,  our  artificiality,  our  efforts  to  seem  what 
we  are  not,  our  complex  wants,  and  our  hypercriticism, 
and  the  question  arises,  Are  we  not  aware  of  the  dis- 
torting effect  upon  a  normal  childish  development  of  the 
effort  to  stamp  children  early  with  adult  forms  and 
patterns  ? 

Was  the  conception  of  childhood  and  the  reverence  for 
childhood  not  lessened  in  the  same  degree  as  that  in 
which  the  present  generation  has  been  hurried  away 
from  it? 

"Les  extremes  se  touchent."  Fifty  and  sixty  years 
ago,  educational  principles  dictated,  "Keep  the  child  as 
long  as  possible  a  child,  in  spite  of  early  instruction." 
They  dictate  at  present,  "Force  the  child,  however  pre- 
maturely, to  take  on  the  shape  of  the  adult,  without 
early  instruction." 

In  the  first  method  there  was  individualizing;  in  the 
second,  formalizing  of  the  child. 

Our  still  limited  insight  into  the  hereditary  psycho- 
physiological influences  of  which  any  given  man  is  a 
product,  and  furthermore,  our  limited  knowledge  of  his 
dependence  on  or  independence  of  the  environments  of 
his  life  apart  from  education,  leave  unsolved  the  prob- 
lem, what  elements  were  brought  in  contact  to  crystal- 
lize into  the  individuality  of  a  Plato,  a  Shakespeare,  or  a 
Maria  Theresa? 


iN  VIOL  ATE    CHILDHOOD.  87 

What  laws,  fixed,  yet  unknown,  and  perhaps  forever 
unknowable  by  human  intelligence,  directed  these  atoms 
and  forces  into  the  formation  of  beings  of  a  higher  organ- 
ization  and  a  finer,  freer  individuality?         J 

If  we  may  not  know  the  laws,  we  know  at  least  that  all 
law  is  orderly  and  logical,  and  we  see  that  in  proportion 
as  we  keep  our  meddlesome  hands  off  that  sacredest  pos- 
session of  childhood,  its  own  individuality,  wTe  leave 
untrammeled  the  continued  operation  of  those  laws  which 
brought  it  into  being  just  as  it  is. 

As  no  two  plants  are  the  same,  as  no  two  leaves  are 
the  same,  so  no  two  human  beings  are  the  same.  Same- 
ness is  neither  an  aim  nor  a  possibility  in  creation. 

The  uninvaded  seclusion  in  which  Mother  Nature  keeps 
the  babyhood  of  her  offspring,  the  reverent  care  recalled 
in  the  thousand  known  and  unknown  ways  in  which  she 
protects  the  first  germinal  activity  against  any  influence 
adverse  to  the  preservation  of  its  special  characteristics, 
might  well  be  considered  and  imitated  by  the  human 
family,  and  reduced  to  moral  obligation.  "Were  it  only 
possible  to  make  this  reverence  for  childhood  real ; 
were  it  but  possible  to  have  people  realize  the  injury 
they  inflict  on  the  infinitely  delicate  mental  and  moral 
tissues  of  the  little  child ! 

Almost  every  one  of  us  might  admit,  if  we  were  candid, 
that  we  carry  to-day  a  scar  from  some  cruel,  unthinking 
stab  in  our  moral  consciousness.  We  wrap  our  little  ones' 
bodies  in  furs  against  the  winter's  cold,  we  temper  for 


88  CONSCIOUS  MOTHEKHOOD. 

them  the  summer's  heat,  and  meanwhile  we  assault  their 
souls  with  the  spectacle  of  our  anger  or  our  cynicism, 
and  we  do  not  hide  from  their  innocence  our  self-excuses 
for  lack  of  duty,  our  moral  debility  and  cowardice. 

Again,  with  how  much  of  awe  do  we  relate  ourselves  to 
the  still  sheathed  buds  of  their  mental  powers.  Do  we 
treat  with  any  adequate  intelligence  and  delicacy  those 
folded-up  responsibilities  ?  Do  we  stand  guard  over  the 
awakening  of  those  inborn  capacities,  and  forbid  all  in- 
trusion on  the  child's  intellectual  individuality?  If  not, 
then  we  are  responsible,  culpably  responsible,  for  the 
thwarting  of  their  destinies.  Not  that  we  are  to  expect 
that  under  favorable  circumstances  every  child  should 
attain  the  distinction  which,  according  to  statistical  esti- 
mates, falLs  to  not  more  than  one  in  four  thousand,  but 
we  are  tacitly  pledged  to  assist  every  child  to  reach  the 
highest  that  is  possible  to  him,  that  is,  the  complete 
development  of  his  individual  organization ;  for  only  by 
this  means  will  he  be  equipped  to  take  possession  of  his 
full  share  of  personal  happiness,  and  to  wield  among  his 
fellows  his  full  and  normal  influence. 

We  should  cultivate  a  child  as  we  cultivate  a  rose,  by 
supplying  the  very  best  conditions  of  growth,  and  then 
respecting  its  individuality  in  the  use  of  these  conditions. 
It  is  by  this  compliance  with  the  laws  governing  each 
separate  living  organization  that  we  see  developed  those 
personal  peculiarities  that  enchant  us, — the  modulation 
of  voice  that  distinguishes  a  woman  among  a  thousand 


INVIOLATE    CHILDHOOD.  89 

others,  that  tranquillizing  touch  of  the  hand  in  one  whose 
one  charm  it  may  be,  the  power  of  command  which  some 
men  exercise  unrebuked,  the  nameless  fascination  which, 
by  whatever  expression,  is  still  the  result  of  that  combi- 
nation of  inner  organization  and  outer  environment  which 
we  call  mere  individuality. 

Of  course,  then,  as  the  means  to  the  end  we  seek,  we 
are  brought  back  to  inquire,  How  are  we  to  supply  these 
needful  best  conditions  ? 

No  doubt,  nothing  is  more  difficult  to  understand  and 
nothing  more  difficult  to  meet  than  just  those  grave 
needs  of  childhood,  —  to  give  it  the  right  materials  and 
opportunities  for  the  awakening  and  exercise  of  its  senses, 
to  lead  it  to  the  right  use  and  control  of  its  own  will,  and 
the  right  perception  of  its  relations  to  others,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  avoid  molding  it  arbitrarily  ;  to  place  before 
it  the  wonders  and  riches  of  life,  and  yet  to  leave  it  free  to 
see  them  with  its  own  eyes,  and  not  with  ours  ;  to  refrain 
from  spoiling  its  simple  self-created  joys  by  lavishing 
upon  it  costly  and  complex  toys,  and  yet  to  respond  to  its 
yearning  for  sympathy  in  its  play. 

We  make  our  children  clever,  but  we  do  it  at  the  ex- 
pense of  their  childlikeness  and  their  originality.  We 
teach  them  to  be  critical,  even  censorious,  before  we  have 
permitted  them  to  exhaust  the  full  pleasure  of  admiration. 
We  hold  up  before  them  the  faults  which  we  bid  them 
avoid,  rather  than  the  virtues  and  harmonies  they  are 
to  imitate.     In  a  word,  which  we  cannot  too  earnestly 


90  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

repeat,  we  do  not  sufficiently  and  always  realize  the  value 
of  leading  children  to  an  affirmative  conception  of  life, 
before  we  fill  them  with  negations.  From  the  begin- 
ning, we  should,  for  example,  instead  of  putting  life  and 
death  in  sharp  antithesis,  direct  them  to  the  idea  of  life 
rather  than  lives ;  of  one  life  which  bursts  into  visibility 
everywhere,  —  in  the  star,  in  the  spider,  in  the  violet,  by 
the  same  inherent  positiveness,  —  and  of  death  as  not  so 
much  the  extinction  of  life  as  its  change  of  form.  Of  this 
they  have  abundant  illustration  in  the  life  of  plants,  the 
flower  transferring  its  part  of  the  universal  life  to  the 
seed,  the  seed  life  transmuted  again  into  sprout  and  root, 
and  so  on  through  the  endless  chain  of  being,  which  a 
little  child  is  quicker  to  apprehend  (according  to  my  ob- 
servation) than  is  the  over-taught  adolescent;  for  every 
child  is  quick  to  feel  and  find  resemblances  and  unities. 
Their  nimble,  warm  imaginations  perceive  or  construct 
kinships  in  nature,  where  we  with  our  cold  classifica- 
tions see  naught  but  separations.  One  of  the  little  girls 
of  my  school,  just  now  at  my  desk,  looking  at  the  picture 
of  two  pears  in  one  of  the  drawing-books,  said  to  her 
mother,  "They  are  two  brothers,"  thus  showing  again 
what  is  exemplified  constantly  in  the  kindergarten,  — the 
carrying  over  of  the  family  relations  into  every  embodi- 
ment of  life.  In  this  case,  however,  it  may  be  well  to 
note  in  passing  that  the  mother  of  little  Marion  is  herself 
a  thorough  Kindergarterin,  who  has  nourished  at  home 
that  tendency  to  unification  which  the  child  gained  at  the 


INVIOLATE    CHILDHOOD.  91 

kindergarten  ;  and  this  mother  assures  me  that  Marion 
holds  the  same  attitude  toward  everything,  and  receives 
in  the  same  spirit  all  the  facts  an  1  events  of  existence. 
This  self-assumed  attitude  leaves  the  child  free  to  be 
happy  in  his  own  activities,  in  his  own  discoveries,  and 
is,  indeed,  the  secret  of  the  natural  contentment  of 
childhood  which  only  disappears  when  we  overlay  it 
by  our  own  obtrusive  discoveries. 

That  a  happy  child  is  a  good  child  is  true  in  a 
scientific  or  educational  as  well  as  in  the  ordinary 
sense :  and  to  preserve  this  happy  spontaneity,  which 
is  itself  the  preserver  of  innocence,  we  need  as  far  as 
possible  to  leave  a  child  to  his  own  unconstrained  self- 
expression  in  plajr. 

Froebel  —  undisputed  authority  as  to  the  normal  facul- 
ties and  wants  of  childhood  —  says  the  child  has  eight 
instinctive  activities,  of  which  the  following  meet  our 
present  purpose:  viz.,  the  instinct  for  play,  for  pro- 
ducing, for  shaping,  for  knowledge,  for  society,  and 
for  cultivating  the  ground. 

In  all  these  the  child  is  independently  active,  and 
only  needs  to  be  provided  with  the  material  and  the 
opportunity.  But  this  provision  is  more  inclusive  than 
we  think,  until  we  are  warned  of  it  by  the  child's 
restlessness  under  privation  of  material  and  opportu- 
nity, and  nothing  so  completely  answers  and  satisfies 
these  higher  impulses  as  a  plenary  communion  with 
Nature.     She    is   the    foster-mother   of    the    soul.     She 


92  CONSCIOUS   MOTHEEHOOD. 

calls  the  child,  without  frightening  him ;  she  teaches 
him,  without  repelling  him ;  she  speaks  a  language  he 
understands  better  than  words ;  and  it  is  in  proportion 
as  he  does  not  forget  this  grand,  simple  dialect,  that  he 
remains  long  a  child,  that  is,  a  poet. 

Attend  but  reverently  enough,  and  you  will  catch  a 
glimpse  in  the  treasure-house  of  a  young  child's  imagi- 
nation. See  him,  when  hardly  able  to  hold  a  pencil, 
making  groups  of  smallest  dots,  to  you  barely  visi- 
ble, and  utterly  meaningless ;  to  him,  representing  the 
most  elaborate  pictures  of  life.  Forests  are  there, 
towns,  streams,  horses,  flowers,  birds ;  in  short,  all 
living  objects  which  have  inspired  his  love  or  excited 
his  fancy.  And  in  what  ardent  words,  with  what  evi- 
dently vivid  visualization,  he  will  describe  to  you  these 
scenes  !  Oh,  beware  of  throwing  an  obliterating  breath 
or  a  distorting  ray  upon  such  soul-pictures  !  From  ger- 
minal specks  like  these  are  to  grow  man's  memories, 
potent  for  good  or  ill.  In  these  pregnant  hours  are 
quickened  an  alien  indifference  to,  or  a  supreme  and 
life-long  joy  in,  a  poetical  relation  to  nature.  Which 
of  us  will  deny  the  absolute  influence  over  his  life  of 
certain  recollections  carried  up  from  childhood  like  the 
holy  contents  of  an  ark ;  certain  odors,  certain  melo- 
dies, some  unexpected  or  mysterious  light?  These,  how- 
ever often  reproduced,  bring  with  them  a  whole  epoch 
of  our  childish  years,  —  years  in  which  we  fit  into  the 
windows    of  the   soul  those  wondrous   bits    of  stained 


INVIOLATE    CHILDHOOD.  93 

glass  which  shall  form  forevermore  the  medium  through 
which  we  regard  life,  and  which  shall  make  it  either 
lurid,  grotesque,  or  beautiful. 

The  poets,  as  I  have  said,  are  those  who  have  not 
outlived  their  childhood.  (Some  romantic  doctor  has 
declared  that  the  mysterious  fontanelles  of  infancy  remain 
always  open  in  the  poet.)  And  among  them  all  there 
has  not  lived  one  who  more  completely  retains  the  very 
tone  and  mood  of  his  first  impressions  than  the  prose 
poet,  Bogumil  Goltz.  In  his  prose  poem,  "The  Book  of 
Childhood,"  he  almost  brings  back  to  our  lips  the  taste  of 
mother's  milk.  Rousseau  and  Jean  Paul  and  numerous 
others  have  embalmed  their  own  infancy  within  book- 
covers,  but  Goltz  brings  our  childhood  to  us,  and  we  live 
it  over  again  with  an  ideal  light  upon  it,  — "  the  light  that 
never  was  on  sea  or  land." 

There  is  room  for  more  such  literature,  for  all  that  puts 
or  keeps  the  adult  in  sympathy  with  the  child.  We  shall 
be  the  better  parents  and  teachers  for  remembering  with 
Bogumil  Goltz  the  raptures  and  reserves  of  infancy. 

He  says  :  "  In  childhood  one  feels  as  never  again  the 
poetry  of  a  corner,  of  the  little  space  shut  off  from 
the  larger  space  that  encloses  it.  Such,  too,  is  the 
poetry  and  mystery  of  a  pocket,  especially  of  a  pocket 
that  buttons.  The  pocket  is  a  symbol :  it  means  the 
most  intimate  outside  space ;  the  place  apart,  peculiar, 
sacred,  and  inviolable,  where  one's  special  posses- 
sions  are   preserved ;    where    a    free    creature   bestows 


94  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

his  property  in  complete  separation  from  the  general 
possession." 

The  author  from  whom  I  am  quoting  should  be  read 
by  all  who  wish  to  get  an  insight  into  the  real  poetry  of 
child  nature.  This  poetic  quality  is  referred  to  by  citing 
the  child's  sense  of  increased  power,  his  sense  of  knight- 
hood, when  he  dons  for  the  first  time  a  new  pair  of  boots 
with  brazen  heels.  This  early  sentiment  of  poetry,  as  it 
may  be  called,  is  no  unreal  thing ;  it  continues  to  exist, 
though  unrecognized,  throughout  many  years  of  severe 
and  exhausting  labor,  as  far  as  possible  removed  from 
anything  which  seems  to  be  poetic.  The  golden  age  of 
childhood  is  not  altogether  lost,  though  years  may  sepa- 
rate us  from  it ;  it  still  lingers  within  the  breast  of  every 
man  or  woman  not  wholly  abandoned,  and  lost  to  vice 
and  crime. 

It  is  because  the  writer  feels  —  has  verified  in  her 
own  person  as  a  child,  and  in  numberless  observations 
of  other  children  as  a  teacher — all  this  sensitiveness  and 
power  of  childhood,  that  she  has  endeavored  in  some 
drawing-books  to  lead  the  child  gently  along  a  road  in 
which  there  are  no  gaps,  and  where,  far  from  closing  the 
gates  on  innocence  and  poetry  and  mystery,  he  is  but 
given  precious,  alluring  glimpses  of  the  inexhaustible 
mystery  and  poetry  of  nature  and  life.  The  intro- 
ductions, too,  in  each  book,  are  intended  in  part  to 
illustrate  the  ideal  relation  between  teacher  and  child, 
to  give  joy  to  the  one,  and  perhaps  help  to  the  other. 


INVIOLATE    CHILDHOOD.  95 

From  lesson  to  lesson  and  from  book  to  book  there  is 
the  gradual  evolution  of  form,  color,  structure,  function, 
ethical  and  aesthetic  signifying  cause,  crystallizing  finally 
into  the  last  results  of  science  as  far  as  science  answers 
the  questions  in  that  department  of  study,  and  missing 
its  mark  if  it  is  not  found  to  have  promoted  the  child's 
moral  growth  as  well  as  his  dexterity,  physical  and 
mental  awakening.  These  are  lost  now  for  our  children 
because  too  much  is  given  them  j  the  poetical  atmosphere 
here  is  ruined,  is  replaced  by  reason,  and  grammar,  and 
bald,  lifeless  knowledge.  The  literalness,  the  irrever- 
ence, the  lack  of  imagination,  the  criticism  and  irony 
of  grown-up  people,  are  put  upon  the  children.  This  is 
the  more  lamentable,  because  "there  is  but  one  learning, 
but  one  hearing  and  seeing,  but  one  reproduction  and 
creation,  one  being,  doing,  and  having,  one  growth, 
experience,  and  life,  and  that  is  the  life  of  child- 
hood. All  that  one  labors,  perceives  and  learns,  feels 
and  knows,  is  a  half-life,  a  feeble  arrogation  of  posses- 
sions." 

To  the  child  each  object,  each  season  of  the  year  and 
time  of  the  day,  each  landscape  and  instrument  means 
as  much  more  than  to  the  ordinary  adult  as  the  child's 
inexperience  and  innocence  exceed  theirs.  As  said 
before,  he  symbolizes  all  things ;  hence  he  is  a  poet. 
Goltz  says  further :  "  The  highest  culture,  beauty, 
grace,  poetry,  and  art,  all  work  essentially  by  a  sym- 
bolical  power,"     "Without   symbolism   the   creation  jv- 


96  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

mains  dead  material,  a  corpse  without  a  spirit,  a  cipher 
writing  of  God,  without  meaning  or  key." 

"^Esthetic  culture  finds  in  this  symbolism  of  the 
reciprocal  relations  of  art  and  nature,  of  the  soul  of 
nature,  of  the  soul  of  the  external  world,  and  the 
ways  in  which  these  groups  of  factors  attract  and 
repel  each  other,  interpret,  complete,  deny,  or  affirm 
each  other,  in  a  word,  on  the  whole  interplay  of  sub- 
ject and  object,  an  inexhaustible  study,  a  new  world  of 
processes  and  principles." 

"  All  processes,  all  forms,  all  colors  and  tones  in 
this  world  of  ours,  are  but  the  reflections  of  an  ideal 
world,  —  of  a  divine  order  of  things.  All  objects  and 
conditions,  deeds  and  situations,  signify  a  thought  of 
God,    and  conceal  or  reveal  an  eternal  secret." 

I  will  end  these  extracts  frcm  Bogumil  Goltz's  book 
in  the  words  in  which  he  begins  the  book :  "  There 
sounds  through  all  our  lives  a  tone  as  solemn  and  holy 
as  the  tone  of  harp  or  organ ;  it  is  the  tone  of  our 
childhood,  which  reverberates  in  every  human  soul  as 
long  as  it  is  not  utterly  demoralized ;  and  even  the 
villain,  the  robber,  the  murderer,  thinks  of  the  days 
when  his  life  was  peaceful  and  innocent;  of  the  heav- 
enly days  when  a  mother's  love  still  guarded  his  steps, 
and  an  unprofaned  nature  still  held  him  above  the  dirt 
and  scum  of  mere  earthiness. 

ft  Oh  !  childhood,  thou  sweetest  time  !  In  thee  is  truly 
heaven    upon    earth,    for   indeed   children    live    at    the 


97 


same  time  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  and  with  the  invis- 
ible cherub  wings  of  their  divine  simplicity  and  imagina- 
tion they  keep  open  for  their  parents,  their  teachers, 
for  all  those  adults  who  have  shed  their  angel  wings, 
the  road  between  the  upper  and  lower  worlds,  the 
communication  between  Eternity  and  Time." 


m.  CHILDREN'S  DIARIES,  COMMENCED  BY  BOTH 
PARENTS  WHDLE  THE  CHILD  IS  STILL  IN  THE 
CRADLE. 

"  From  childhood's  lips,  in  tones  so  pure, 
A  deep  unconscious  wisdom  flows, 
Of  nature's  truth,  of  bird  and  bloom, 
Of  life,  its  myths  in  wondering  dreams." 

BOGUMIL    GOLTZ. 

Who  gather  these  pure  melodies?  Many  a  mother 
keeps  them  forever  in  the  sacred  shrine  of  love ;  but  it 
is  to  benefit  the  child  that  these  mental  photographs, 
the  images  of  its  gradual  unfolding  in  character  and 
actions,  should  be  kept  with  the  same  religious  conse- 
cration that  the  Egyptians  used  in  keeping  their  diaries. 
Francis  Galton  recommends  the  introduction  of  family 
records,  so  as  to  gain  a  scientific  insight,  as  he  sees  in 
them  the  possibility  of  a  control  over  inherited  and 
periodically  recurring  family  diseases,  and  unpleasant 
traits  of  character.  Preyer  believed  it  possible  to 
fully  remember  our  own  childhood  by  being  constantly 
led  back  to  it,  and  noticing  the  improvement,  in  saying 


98  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

the  word  K  breakfast,"  which  his  child  had  kept  perfectly 
clear  in  his  memory.  And  Stanley  Hall  speaks  of  F. 
Froebel's  request  to  parents  to  bind  themselves  to  keep 
a  diary  conscientiously,  stating  in  it  fully  and  unflinch- 
ingly the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  development  of 
each  of  their  children  till  they  are  able  to  continue  the 
diary  in  the  same  spirit  for  themselves ;  thus  leading 
the  child  to  observe  with  what  painstaking  love  and  care 
his  virtues  as  well  as  his  faults,  his  talents  as  well  as 
his  lack  of  capacity,  have  been  judiciously  considered 
and  acted  upon,  would  impress  on  him  the  everlasting 
tie  of  parental  love  and  wisdom.  Parents  would  thus 
develop  the  child  into  a  friend  with  unbounded  confi- 
dence. His  character  being  founded  on  truth,  the  child 
would  blush  to  have  to  record  of  himself  debasement. 
The  writer  arranged  a  plan  with  similar  aims  for  older 
children  of  her  school,  those  about  ten  years  of  age. 
Each  child  had  a  book  in  which  he  wrote  at  the  close  of 
each  day  the  standard  of  his  acquirement  and  behavior. 
These  books  were  not  kept  for  the  teachers,  but  for 
the  insight  of  the  parents,  or  at  least  the  mothers. 
No  record  was  kept,  no  tickets  were  given  or  ex- 
aminations made  in  school.  Each  child  in  its  desire  to 
know  was  its  own  natural  stimulant.  Prof.  Preyer  asks 
mothers  to  associate  with  him  in  records  for  keeping 
a  careful  account  of  early  education  and  the  gradual 
development  of  the  child  from  its  birth.  A  lady  from 
Liefland   (Eussia)    met  this   request.     We  may  be  sure 


children's  diaries.  99 

that  the  intelligence  and  quickness  to  test  the  value  of  a 
practical  idea  will  stimulate  thousands  and  thousands  of 
mothers  to  listen  to  the  soul-voice  of  their  babies,  to 
engrave  it  forever  in  the  book  of  life,  by  placing  it  in  the 
hands  of  each  child  old  enough  to  know  himself,  and 
as  Prof.  Stanley  Hall  says,  in  his  study  of  children  : 
"This  book  should  be  kept  without  the  child's  knowl- 
edge, to  be  given  to  him  at  maturity  as  a  guide  to  aid  his 
choice  of  profession  or  calling,  or  his  physical  regimen." 
Such  a  course  would  afford  the  child  a  power  within 
himself  to  enter  the  battle  of  life,  absolutely  different  from 
the  inducements  with  which  we  lead  him  usually  to  suc- 
cess. Far  from  trying  to  get  the  best  of  all,  the  child 
should  find  out  and  be  led  to  use  his  God-given  powers 
for  a  happy,  righteous  existence.  Millions  perish  on  the 
road  by  seeking  more  than  they  can  ever  hold  in  their 
greedy  grasp.  How  different  would  it  be  if  the  father 
and  mother,  in  full  confidence  and  unity  with  the  school, 
would  make  the  entrance  into  the  school  a  moral  event; 
if  they  would  take  the  record  of  their  child,  with  his  in- 
dividual propensities,  as  a  guide  and  stimulant !  What 
confidence  would  in  time  grow  from  such  relations 
between  parents  and  teachers  !  The  physical  tie  of  parent- 
hood would  evolve  into  a  deep,  morally  protecting  friend- 
ship, making  the  child  cling  to  them  in  undreamed  love 
and  confidence,  when  it  needs  them  most,  at  the  period 
of  the  first  awakening  of  youthful  passions.  Happy  the 
father  who  holds  the  hand  of  his  son  in  this  important 


100  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

hour,  a  picture  of  beauty  and  health,  when  in  loving  rev- 
erence and  faith  he  confesses  his  own  battles  with  his 
better  self !  Happy  the  father  who  can  prove  by  the  care^ 
fully  kept  records  of  his  son's  characteristics  that  he  was 
prepared  for  such  confession  ;  that  he  knew,  according  to 
its  innate  propensities,  that  these  hours  had  to  be  experi- 
enced so  as  to  learn  that  nothing  other  than  his  own  manly 
victory  over  his  lower  self  could  save  him!  Imagine  such 
union  between  father  and  son,  mother  and  daughter,  not 
as  an  exception,  but  as  the  normal  condition,  and  deduct 
from  it  the  moral  influence  it  must  exercise  on  the  coming 
generations. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  AND    THROUGH  THE  SENSES. 

I.  Development  of  the  Senses  in  General.  —  II.  Development  of  the  Sense 
of  Sight. —  III.  Development  of  the  Sense  of  Sight  hy  Play  Exer- 
cises.—IV.  Emma  Marwedel's  Color  Play  No.  1,  called  Babies' 
Fun.  —  V.  Emma  Marwedel's  Color  Play  No.  2,  called  Babies'  Ringo- 
lets.  —  VI.  Emma  Marwedel's  Color  Play  No.  3,  called  Family  Color 
Play.  _  VII.  Education  through  the  Sense  of  Sight.  —  VIII.  The 
Sense  of  Hearing. —  IX.  Emma  Marwedel's  Practical  Gymnastics 
for  the  Improvement  of  the  Sense  of  Hearing.  —  X.  Education 
through  the  Sense  of  Hearing.  — XI.  The  Sense  of  Smell.  —  XII. 
Education  through  the  Senses  of  Smelling,  Tasting,  and  Touching.  -~ 
XIII.  Sense  Influence  on  the  Development  of  Logic.  —  XIV.  Sense 
Influence  on  Originality  of  Conception.  —  XV.  Sense  Influence  on 
Imagination  and  Memory. 

I.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SENSES  IN  GENERAL. 

On  the  development  of  the  senses  depends  the  develop- 
ment of  the  mind,  and  consequently  the  development  of 
the  human  race. 

Scientific  research  into  the  early  condition  of  the  organs 
of  sense  shows  that  their  development  must  have  kept 
pace  with  the  general  physical  and  mental  development 
of  the  human  race.  A  scientific  war  is  waging  to-day  on 
the  question,  whether  the  lack  of  an  extended  nomencla- 
ture for  color  in  Homer's  writings,  though  the  effects  of 
light  are  so  vividly  described  by  him,  proves  a  deficiency 
in  color-sense   among  the  Greeks.     Of  no  less  interest 


102  Conscious  motherhood. 

is  the  question  whether  the  sense  of  sight  in  animals, 
especially  insects,  is  equal  to  that  of  man  in  recogniz- 
ing colors,  or  if  their  power  of  sight  was  limited  to  the 
perception  of  the  different  effects  of  light  on  color,  —  ques- 
tions which  interest  us  only  as  they  indicate  the  evolution 
of  sense  development,  about  which  Tyndall  says :  "  If 
we  would  allow  ourselves  for  a  moment  to  analyze  the 
ideas  of  evolution,  which  means  successive  growth,  im- 
provement, and  elevation,  we  should  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  there  is  still  an  immense  amount  of  visible 
impressions  awaiting  man's  cognizance ;  greater  and 
higher  than  those  he  possesses  at  present."  May  we  not 
conclude,  from  this  prophetic  assurance  of  Tyndall,  that 
there  was  a  period  in  which  man  possessed  no  sense 
of  color,  but  only  a  sense  of  light  and  darkness?  The 
comparison  of  this  theory  with  the  records  of  human 
sense  perfection,  which  furnish  investigation  with  won- 
derful facts,  especially  among  savage  tribes,  and  the 
consideration  still  more  of  the  results  attained  in  our 
present  institutes  for  the  deaf,  the  mute,  the  blind,  and 
idiots,  demonstrate  to  what  a  marvelous  degree  the  loss 
of  one  sense,  and  even  (in  the  case  of  Laura  Bridgman) 
the  loss  of  three  senses,  can  be  replaced  by  extra  cultiva- 
tion of  another  sense.  Sense  education,  on  the  other  hand, 
for  developing  man  to  a  completion  of  his  full  scale  of 
sense  organs,  so  as  to  perfect  his  physical,  mental,  and 
moral  condition,  as  an  outgrowth  of  modern  science, 
dates   from   the    latter   part   of  the    nineteenth   century. 


Development  of  the  senses  in  general.      103 


Combined  scientific  efforts  will  undoubtedly  establish, 
erelong,  a  normal  standard  by  which  we  shall  be  able 
to  correct  from  birth,  by  natural  means,  any  sense  de- 
ficiency, where  at  present  we  depend  mostly  on  artificial 
means  to  supply  inefficiency  of  sense  organs  for  daily 
pursuits,  in  cases  where  early  training  or  preventives 
would  have  been  sufficient.  For  this  work,  we  appeal 
to  mothers  and  their  earliest  associates,  kindergarten 
teachers. 

The  senses,  the  sole  means  by  which  we  ascertain  the 
qualities  and  differences  of  objects,  are  capable  of  being 
educated  in  two  distinct  directions :  either  as  special 
functions,  their  culture  beginning  and  ending  with  them- 
selves, or  as  means  to  man's  higher  culture.  Prof. 
Preyer  calls  attention  to  their  slow  and  gradual  evolu- 
tion in  the  child ;  thus  drawing  the  line  of  demarcation 
between  animal  instinct  and  human  unfolding.  One 
cannot  help  being  profoundly  impressed  by  the  divinely 
ordained  efforts  through  which  the  human  infant,  ac- 
cording to  Preyer's  testimony,  raises  itself  from  that 
first  low  development  of  faculties  by  which  he  gains  a 
dim  recognition  of  the  sweetness  of  milk,  through  a 
conception  of  the  differences  of  things  and  their  relation 
to  each  other,  to  the  power  of  reason,  of  creative  thought, 
and  the  formation  of  habits.  Ail  this,  too,  in  the  course 
of  from  one  to  two  years,  notwithstanding  the  child's 
lack  of  understanding  of  the  speech  it  hears,  and  of  its 
power   of  expression   by  speech.     If  at   five  weeks  old 


104  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Preyer's  child  showed  pleasure  at  the  swinging  of  some 
colored  tassels,  and  a  few  days  later  at  the  lights  and 
ornaments  of  the  Christmas  tree,  it  is  indisputably 
proved  that  at  five  weeks  old  the  impressions  received 
through  the  senses  were  already  transmuted  into  sym- 
pathetic emotions,  and  hence  that  education  begins  as 
early  as  this.  This  being  true,  a  grave  responsibility 
rests  upon  the  care-takers  of  the  young  being  to  see 
that  the  educational  influences  are  appropriate  and  ade- 
quate. Man  is  born  a  whole.  There  is  no  subsequent 
introduction  of  faculties.  A  complete  man,  he  lies 
coiled  up  in  the  infant,  as  the  oak-tree  in  the  acorn. 
His  first  manifestations  are  the  outcries  of  his  individual 
soul,  to  be  received  with  such  awe  as  was  shown  the 
oracles  of  old.  "Motherhood"  means  "priesthood." 
It  is  the  mother  on  the  divine  tripod,  ordained  to  listen 
to  the  prophetic  oracles  of  man  in  the  child.  Man's 
higher  culture  depends  on  his  capacity  for  quick  and 
reliable  transmission  of  sense  impressions,  to  be  trans- 
muted into  intellectual  judgments  or  into  emotional  im- 
pulses. The  former  acts  critically  ;  the  latter  creatively, 
viewing  life  affirmatively,  instead  of  negatively,  thus 
dividing  the  education  of  the  senses  into  two  distinct 
parts,  namely,  education  through  and  of  the  senses. 

II.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SENSE  OF  SIGHT 

The    sense    of    sight,  in   its    use    and   abuse,  recently 
aroused  the  attention  of  the  medical  profession,  of  ped- 


DEVELOPMENT    OF   THE    SENSE    OF   SIGHT.  105 


agogues,  and  of  statesmen.  Increasing  short-sightedness 
has  instigated  investigation  and  the  passing  of  laws  tend- 
ing to  protect  the  young  against  our  ignorance  and  the 
evils  of  civilization.  The  following  points  have  been 
legally  considered,  and  acted  upon  by  the  German 
Reichstag :  First,  the  effects  of  light  in  the  school-room. 
Second,  the  type  print  of  the  school-books.  Third,  the 
introduction  of  white  slates  and  boards  instead  of  black- 
boards. Fourth,  alternation  of  manual  labor  with  in- 
tellectual. Fifth,  the  shortening  of  school  hours, 
exercises  in  field  sports,  bringing  the  children  under 
the  subdued  light  of  green  trees  during  lessons  in 
natural  history,  as  practiced  in  the  kindergarten,  far 
from  books,  in  the  temple  of  nature  itself.  The  great 
alarm  concerning  color-blindness  vanished  at  once 
when  its  cause  was  found  to  be  exclusively  the  early 
neglect  of  the  color-sense.  Dr.  Magnus,  Professor 
of  Optical  Science  in  the  University  of  Breslau, 
makes  the  following  official  statement:  "Of  12,290 
women  carefully  examined,  only  thirty-one  were  found 
to  be  color  blind,  while  the  male  sex  gave  3.25  per 
cent." 

These  statements  coincide  with  similar  official  investi- 
gations among  different  nations.  He  instances  the  per- 
ception of  artists  as  to  the  possible  refinement,  intensity, 
and  extension  of  the  power  of  sight  as  compared  with 
our  present  neglect  of  the  education  of  the  sense  of 
sight    at   home   and    at    school.     Prof,   Virchow,  of  the 


106  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

Berlin  University,  stated  lately  before  the  Anthropo- 
logical Society  at  Berlin,  that  he  recommended  at  each 
school  term  fresh  color  exercises  to  his  young  students, 
when  unable  to  detect  red,  blue,  or  brown  in  black, 
or  yellow,  white,  or  green  in  gray,  while  a  trained  eye 
detects  these  differences  very  easily.  He  recognized 
these  exercises  as  of  such  vital  importance  as  to  lead 
him  to  present  a  bill  before  the  German  Keichstag, 
requesting  earnest  attention  to  the  curriculum  of  instruc- 
tion on  this  point.  This  importance  seems  greater, 
when  we  see  the  different  official  statements  of  dis- 
tinguished oculists  as  to  the  condition  in  German 
schools,  especially  the  public  schools,  in  the  total  in- 
sensibility to  and  ignorance  of  color  tones,  shades, 
and  tints,  for  which  no  names  had  entered  their 
minds. 

Observations  on  the  early  recognition  of  colors  by 
young  children  seem  to,  be  rare.  Darwin  felt  greatly 
disappointed  in  two  or  three  of  his  children,  who,  having 
reached  the  age  when  common  objects  could  be  named 
by  them,  showed  entire  ignorance  of  the  names  of 
colors.  He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a  knowledge 
of  both  name  and  color  was  too  difficult  for  them. 
Prof.  Syokalsky  says :  "  No  child  is  born  with  a  dis- 
tinct function  which  recognizes  a  difference  between 
yellow,  blue,  and  red.  These  functions  have  to  be 
developed  gradually  by  constant  action  and  stimulation 
of  the  sense  of  sight."    Prof.  W.  Thayer,  psychologist, 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE    SENSE   OF   SIGHT.  107 

physiologist,  and  ophthalmologist  of  wide  reputation, 
by  his  proof  of  the  possibility  of  early  color-sense  and 
its  educational  effects,  has  served  the  world  beyond 
measure,  at  this  time,  when  truth  and  light  on  the 
problem  of  education  through  the  senses  is  so  much 
needed.  Besides,  his  proof  adds  to  the  theory  of  Dr. 
Daly,  Professeur  de  la  Salpetriere,  at  Paris,  saying  that 
while  the  early  use  of  the  soft  gray  matter  of  the 
infant  brain  is  extremely  injurious  to  the  healthy 
growth  of  that  organ,  since  the  gray  matter  is  very 
watery  in  early  infancy,  and  cannot  bear  rapid  molec- 
ular changes,  the  sense  organs,  on  the  contrary,  being 
intimately  connected  with  the  ganglionic  or  symmet- 
rical system,  and  producing  emotions  as  a  constant  re- 
sultant, are  entirely  in  the  line  of  normal,  childish  de- 
velopment. 

The  great  practically  approved  lesson  which  Prof. 
Preyer  carried  into  the  world  of  learning,  he  carries 
into  a  still  deeper  recess,  the  heart  of  the  mother,  who 
unfortunately,  in  her  present  lack  of  educational  knowl- 
edge, is  deficient  where  it  is  most  needed,  — at  the  cradle 
and  in  the  nursery.  What  would  millions  of  mothers 
not  give,  if  they  could  know  exactly  how  best  to  occupy 
themselves  with  their  children?  In  order  to  enable 
mothers  to  give  their  babies  the  requisite  color-sense, 
Dr.  Magnus's  color  chart,  the  same  that  Prof.  Preyer 
used  with  his  child,  is  added  to  this  book,  together 
with  an  original  series  of  color  play  exercises,  to  which 


108  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

the  writer  will  refer  later,  leading  the  child  slowly  and 
gradually  to  development. 

1.  On  differences  of  color. 

2.  On  differences  of  names  of  colors. 

3.  On  differences  of  shades  of  colors. 

4.  On  differences  of  position  and  direction. 

5.  On  differences  in  measurement  and  form. 

6.  On  differences  of  outline  and  material. 

Prof.  Preyer  began  to  familiarize  his  boy  with  colors 
when  twenty-one  months  old,  and  this  boy  gave  evidence 
of  his  knowledge  at  three  years  old,  by  distinguishing  nine 
different  colors,  each  in  four  shades  or  tints.  Taking  for 
granted  that  the  results  Prof.  Preyer  gained  with  his  boy 
were  from  a  child's  normal  condition,  the  experience  of 
Prof.  Virchow  proves  the  unpardonable  neglect  of  the 
organ  of  sight  in  education,  to  which,  however,  some  at- 
tention has  of  late  been  given.  The  celebrated  Dr.  Farrar, 
Canon  of  Westminster  Abbey,  gave  a  course  of  lectures 
lately  at  the  London  Institute  of  Art.  He  says  that  "  any 
neglect  of  art,  as  a  means  of  education,  will  bear  most  in- 
jurious results.  Early  training  teaches  reading,  writing, 
and  arithmetic,  but  the  much  more  important  matter  of 
instruction  in  admiration,  imagination,  and  love  is  ignored, 
and  with  them  is  ignored  the  culture  of  the  very  center 
from  which  man  grows,  his  inner  life."  The  children,  he 
says,  "  who  will  tell  you  readily  how  many  pounds  of  meat 
you  will  get  for  a  shilling,  have  perhaps  never  smelled  a 
sweet-brier."     Let  us,  therefore,  begin  with  sense  and  art 


DEVELOPMENT    OF   THE    SENSE    OF    SIGHT.  109 


education  in  our  schools  and  homes.  At  the  last  meeting 
of  the  Pedagogical  Society,  at  Leipzig,  Saxony,  the  in- 
spector of  drawing,  Mr.  Flinzer,  spoke  of  education  in 
color,  and  referred  to  the  growing  necessity  for  modern 
instruction  based  on  a  psychological  plan,  proving  that 
human  development  begins  with  external  objective  per- 
ception, fostered  by  analytical  conception  of  form  and 
color.  Romanic  nations,  the  Italian,  and  still  more  the 
French,  have  given  special  attention  to  education  in  form 
and  color,  hence  they  have  become  leaders  and  creators 
in  art  and  fashion.  Dr.  Magnus  says  that  the  precision 
and  ease  with  which  certain  people  measure  and  estimate 
distances  with  no  other  instrument  than  their  eyes,  cannot 
be  explained  or  made  possible  but  by  an  exceptional 
facility  in  using  certain  eye  muscles,  and  that  the 
power  of  eye  measurement  which  we  find  sometimes  in 
the  utmost  perfection  among  artists  and  mechanics  is  the 
result  of  much  exercise ;  so  that  any  one  applying  him- 
self steadily  may  excel  thus.  In  this  sense  it  was  said 
by  Michael  Angelo  that  the  artist  must  have  his  compass 
in  his  eyes,  not  in  his  hands. 

Prof.  TyndalPs  predictions  concerning  the  higher  de- 
velopment of  the  organ  of  sight  agree  with  the  state- 
ment of  Dr.  Magnus,  that  while  the  usual  seat  of  the 
conception  of  color  and  form  is  in  the  center  of  the  eye, 
early  exercises  with  colors,  form,  size,  and  beauty  would 
meet  these  wants,  and  are  therefore  brought  within  the 
reach   of  the   baby  by  the    color  form  game,   which   is 


110  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

later  described.  Prof.  Magnus  proves  the  education 
of  the  sense  of  sight  by  the  delicate  tints  and  the  har- 
monious combinations  of  colors  used  by  civilized  nations, 
compared  with  the  savages  and  half-civilized ;  the  latter 
preferring  glaring,  vivid  colors,  without  any  consideration 
of  tones  and  blending.  Moral  and  practical  educational 
obligations  to  complete  a  general  development  of  the  in- 
dividual man,  with  the  special  and  earliest  training  of  the 
senses,  foremost  those  of  sight,  hearing,  and  touch,  de- 
mand special  effort. 

W.  Preyer's  experiments  in  teaching  the  names  and 
differences  of  thirty-six  colors,  to  a  child  not  much  over 
three  years  old,  demonstrate  a  great  psychological  truth 
in  science,  which,  perhaps  unintentionally  to  himself,  must 
affect  in  a  great  degree  the  pedagogic  scientist.  Not  that 
the  art  of  retaining  facts  as  early  as  that  period  may  be 
called  desirable,  but  as  demonstrating  the  possibility  of 
using  sense  impressions  early,  for  a  general,  mental,  and 
moral  development,  even  in  the  cradle.  The  capacity  of 
the  child  thus  demonstrated,  we  may  conclude,  with  Dr. 
E.  Seguin,  that  "the  education  of  the  sense  is  as  useful 
as  that  of  the  mind,  and  must,  if  anything,  precede  it. 
For  what  an  educated  mind  can  do,  without  the  help  of 
educated  senses,  is  seen  uselessly  shelved  in  our  libraries  ; 
what  the  senses  and  the  hand,  unaided  by  the  cultivated 
mind,  are  doing,  fills  up  our  stores  with  coarse  products 
eagerly  sought  after ;  and  what  both  the  educated 
senses  and   mind   can  accomplish  in   concert  is  proudly 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE    SENSE    OF    SIGHT.  Ill 

exposed    to    view    in   the    Olympic    rivalries    of    modern 
nations. 

"By  this  latter  process,  we  will  spread,  everywhere  and 
without  stint,  illustrations  of  (a)  the  kind  of  superiority 
of  the  productions  of  the  epochs  during  which  the  senses 
were  developed,  even  to  excess ;  (h)  of  the  harmony  of 
the  productions  of  the  epochs  during  which  the  mind  and 
the  senses  received  an  almost  parallel  education ;  (c)  of 
the  impossibility  of  using  intellectual  resources  when  they 
are  not  supported  by  accurate  sensory  perceptions ;  (cZ) 
of  the  vagaries  of  the  mind  deprived  of  the  criteria  which 
the  senses  furnish ;  (e)  of  the  rapid  degradation  of  the 
creations  of  taste  when  they  are  reproduced  or  interpreted 
by  unskilled  hands  and  senses ;  (/)  of  the  progress 
accomplished  by  recent  improvements  in  the  modes  of 
mediate  or  immediate  sensory  perceptions ;  (g)  of  the 
progress  expected  in  art  and  science  from  a  better  train- 
ing of  the  senses,  and  from  the  necessary  addition  to  our 
instruments  and  methods  to  give  more  precision  to  the 
operation  of  the  senses." 

III.    DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE   SENSE   OF   SIGHT  BY 
PLAY   EXERCISES. 

These  play  exercises,  which  are  five  in  number,  are 
designed  to  serve  as  the  first  means  of  development  of  the 
child  in  the  cradle ;  and  almost  to  double  their  value 
in  their  influence  on  the  family  unity  in  educational 
pleasure. 


112  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

What  the  mother,  father,  nurse,  and  the  family  at 
large  need  is  means  by  which  a  natural  joyful  influence 
toward  a  higher  educational  union  may  be  created. 

IV.     EMMA  MARWEDEL'S  COLOR  PLAY  NO.  1,  CALLED 
BABIES'  FUN. 

In  this  play,  the  first  which  can  be  applied  by  the 
mother  to  the  baby,  three  educational  factors  have  been 
considered,  without  the  need  of  language  on  the  part  of 
the  child,  namely,  a  development  of  the  sense  of  sight, 
of  color,  and  of  form. 

Both  Prof.  Preyer  and  Prof.  Magnus  have  pronounced 
early  and  repeated  exercises  of  the  muscles  essential  to 
the  later  usefulness  and  the  power  of  facial  expression, 
proposing  thereby  what  may  be  called  a  gymnastic  of 
the  eyes. 

From  this  point  of  view,  this  play  gives  ample  scope. 
1.  To  lead  the  baby  playfully  and  joyfully  in  a  gymnastic 
of  the  eyes,  by  following  quickly  the  changed  position 
of  the  color-forms.  It  consists  of  a  box  containing  nine 
dozen  ovate  color-forms  in  the  shape  of  a  walnut.  Their 
colors  correspond  with  the  two  extreme  tones  of  Prof. 
Magnus's  color  series,  furnishing  half  a  dozen  pieces  of 
each  color.  Precautions  have  been  taken  to  prevent  their 
discoloring,  or  being  swallowed,  or  becoming  in  any  way 
injurious  to  health.  2.  To  recognize  color  by  compari- 
son in  a  most  playful  manner,  so  that  a  child  may  show 
discrimination  between  colors  before  it  is  able  to  speak. 


EMMA   MARWEDEL'S    COLOR   PLAY  NO.    1-  113 

3.  To  recognize  differences  in  forms,  by  placing  two, 
three,  or  four  pieces  of  the  color-forms  together,  changing 
colors  and  directions,  leading  finally  to  the  execution  of 
forms  of  symmetry  or  beauty  and  forms  of  use.  4.  To 
answer  the  need  of  the  child,  by  occupying  and  develop- 
ing its  power  of  sight  with  round  forms ;  its  power  of 
vision,  according  to  W.  Preyer  and  H.  Magnus,  being 
concentrated  in  the  center  of  the  eye,  thus  enabling  the 
child  from  the  beginning  to  carry  and  retain  rounded 
figures.  The  play  in  itself,  based  on  the  latest  psycho- 
physiological and  educational  principles,  cannot  fail,  if. 
received  and  used  in  the  right  spirit,  to  offer  continued 
amusement. 

How  shall  it  be  played?  This  is  given  with  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  play,  but  it  may  be  asked  to  what  extent  it 
may  become  a  family  play.  In  some  happy  moments  the 
baby  (which  never  should  be  forced,  and  never  compared 
with  other  babies,  because  its  quick  or  slow  color  percep- 
tion depends  entirely  upon  innate  capacity)  is  able  to  use 
the  same  corner  in  which  mamma  had  laid  down  the 
color-form  previously,  and  papa  being  told  of  this  pos- 
sibility, awaits  with  tender  emotions  the  first  proof  of 
perception  of  his  child.  Placing  himself  at  the  piano,  he 
promises  the  baby  the  touch  of  a  full  chord  if  it  does 
not  fail.  The  baby,  though  unable  to  use  the  language 
if  which,  nevertheless,  it  has  a  full  understanding,  is 
delighted.  The  baby  starts, — yes,  it  is  right,  —  and 
perhaps  the  whole  family  may  repeat  the  act,  as  did  this 


114  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

wise  and  glad  papa,  when  he  found  his  child  for  the 
first  time  following  an  object  with  an  intelligent  con- 
ception. The  great  need  of  our  age  is  home  pleasure 
in  common.  Extension  of  this  play  offers  sufficient 
means  for  that  purpose. 


V.    EMMA   MARWEDEL'S   COLOR  PLAY  NO.   2,  CALLED 
BABIES'   RINGOLETS. 

This  consists  of  rings  in  thirty-six  colors,  similar  to 
those  of  Prof.  Magnus's  chart.  They  are  of  two  or 
three  sizes,  and  many  of  them  are  divided  into  halves 
and  quarters. 

Its  educational  aim  is  similar  to  play  No.  1,  supple- 
mented by  a  few  progressive  elements,  as  follows  :  — 

1.  The  increase  of  colors  by  introducing  shades. 

2.  The  opportunity  to  proceed  from  the  simplest  com- 
bination of  symmetrical  figures  to  complicated  forms  of 
beauty,  furnishing  means  of  enjoyment  for  the  whole 
family  in  common. 

3.  The  addition  of  halves  and  quarters,  which,  though 
not  intended  to  serve  the  recognition  of  arithmetical 
diversities,  leads  the  child  to  conceive  unconsciously  the 
differences  in  color,  size,  form,  and  position. 

It  may  seem  surprising  that  in  the  play  No.  1  the 
colors  presented  extremes,  namely,  the  darkest  and 
the  lightest  of  the  color.  Every  object  carries  a  sen- 
sation which  is  stronger  or  weaker,  as  the  impressions 


115 


received  differ  from  each  other.  The  less  distinct  these 
differences,  the  less  vivid  will  be  the  impression. 

Now,  experienced  teachers  daily  see  how  difficult  it 
is  to  obtain  an  exact  observation  or  description  of  the 
most  common  objects  of  our  surroundings,  even  by 
adults.  This  is  shown  by  Francis  Galton's  statement 
in  relation  to  a  description  of  a  breakfast-table,  given 
by  a  number  of  distinguished  persons,  and  it  is  not  less 
clearly  demonstrated  through  the  investigations  procured 
by  the  simplest  questions  of  Prof.  Stanley  Hall. 

Every  object  appears  as  a  whole,  and  as  parts  of  a 
whole,  of  which  every  part  sends  forth  certain  charac- 
teristics, to  be  impressed  separately  on  the  different 
senses  toward  the  completion  of  the  conception  as  a 
whole.  The  greater  the  sensitiveness  of  the  different 
organs,  the  more  vivid  and  complete  will  be  the  con- 
ception of  an  object,  in  its  parts  and  as  a  whole. 

In  the  little  child  it  needs  the  power  of  will  to  pro- 
duce certain  motions  of  the  muscles  which,  though  slow, 
keep  pace  with  the  number  of  impressions  which  pass 
from  a  mere  dim  sensation  to  a  clear  perception,  as  de- 
fined in  Preyer's  book.  He  states  that  his  child  showed 
the  first  effect  of  light  on  the  sixth  day,  and  that  on 
the  twenty-third  day  he  became  fully  assured  that  his 
boy  followed  a  candle-light  with  his  eyes,  turning  them 
from  right  to  left,  and  vice  versa, — an  experiment  which 
he  enjoyed  both  as  a  father  and  as  a  scientist,  repeat- 
ing it  more  than  twenty  times  the  same  day.     At  nine- 


116  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

teen  weeks  old  it  was  evident  the  child  followed  with 
his  glance  some  objects  passing  by,  or  to  be  seen  in 
the  room. 

VI.    EMMA  MARWEDEL'S  COLOR  PLAY  NO.  3,  CALLED 
FAMILY   COLOR  PLAY. 

This  introduces  Prof.  Magnus's  color  chart,  used  by 
Prof.  Preyer  in  teaching  his  boy  to  distinguish  colors 
and  their  names.  It  presents  round  tablets  in  nine 
colors,  each  color  being  subdivided  by  four  tones  from 
dark  to  light,  making,  on  the  whole,  thirty-six  colors 
which  are  doubled. 

They  may  be  used  as  follows :  — 

1.  In  the  manner  described  by  Prof.  Preyer. 

2.  In  forming  symmetrical  figures  or  borders,  similar 
to  the  patterns  in  the  ring  play. 

3.  In  using  the  colored  pencils  to  imitate  the  series  of 
tones,  as  seen  in  the  chart,  by  producing  the  four  colors 
belonging  to  one  shade  with  only  two  pencils,  thereby 
forming  a  connecting  link  between  the  three  successive 
color  plays ;  the  coloring  of  the  fruit  and  flowers  in  the 
circular  sewing,  and  the  circular  drawing-book   No.   1. 

"It  was  on  the  twenty-third  day,"  says  Prof.  Preyer, 
w  that  I  observed  for  the  first  time  an  impression  made 
on  my  boy  by  color.  He  laughed  aloud  at  a  pink  cur- 
tain on  which  the  sun  shone.  But  it  was  in  the  eigh- 
teenth month  that  I  introduced  the  first  systematic  ex- 
amination of  counters  of  similar  shape,  but  differing  in 


EMMA   MARWEDEL'S   COLOR   PLAY  NO.    3.  117 

color.  No  sign  of  the  power  to  distinguish  color  was 
evinced,  though  a  certain  doubt  could  be  perceived." 
Prof.  Preyer  then  introduced  the  arrangement  of  colors 
presented  by  his  color  chart,  consisting  of  nine  series 
of  colors,  each  containing  four  shades.  He  also  gives  an 
account  of  his  proceedings  and  success,  stating  that  when 
the  child  was  two  years  and  seven  weeks  old  he  gave 
right  answers  about  the  colors  to  all  questions  except 
one. 

We  recognize  the  great  value  of  this  scientific  experi- 
ment to  psychology  and  pedagogics  ;  but  as  a  follower 
of  Froebel's  educational  principles,  it  seems  preferable 
that  the  conception  of  a  mere  difference  in  colors,  with- 
out name,  should  be  aimed  at,  in  order  to  exempt  the 
still  speechless  child  from  memorizing  words.  The  ed- 
ucational aim  is  to  give  the  child  at  this  age  attractive 
play  occupations ;  to  learn  to  see,  not  to  know ;  to 
open  its  mental  eyes  for  the  aesthetic  conception  of  light. 
Who  can  tell  wThat  came  first  under  the  mental  eyes  of 
the  young  painter  (he  died  quite  young)  who,  when  one 
of  Rubens's  large  pictures  was  stolen,  offered  to  replace 
it  from  memory?  His  picture  was  accepted,  though  with 
reluctance  and  doubt.  But  how  great  was  the  surprise 
in  artistic  circles,  when,  after  recovering  the  stolen  pic- 
ture, it  was  found  to  be  the  most  exact  copy  in  all 
respects,  —  in  all  its  varied  coloring,  grouping,  and 
expression !  Undoubtedly,  the  young  artist  felt  a  deep 
sympathy  with  the  picture  itself;  but  what  had  favored 


118  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

his  marvelous  power  of  memory  and  conception?  "Was 
it  his  mother?  It  was  doubtless  she,  who,  kneeling  by 
his  cradle,  heard  the  whispers  of  his  inner,  his  divine 
nature. 

VII.     EDUCATION  THROUGH  THE   SENSE   OP   SIGHT. 

Sense  influence  on  the  higher  conception  of  the  beauty 
of  nature. 

It  is  clear  that  with  an  increased  sensitiveness  of  sight 
to  the  beautiful,  sympathy  with  nature  becomes  identical 
with  the  conception  of  beauty  in  nature.  The  child  who, 
still  in  the  arms  of  its  mother,  sees  her  caring  for  the 
wants  of  the  beautiful  plants,  and  imagines  he  assists  her 
in  giving  them  nourishment,  learns  to  associate  the  needs 
of  his  own  existence  with  the  food,  air,  and  sunshine 
necessary  to  plant  life,  not  less  than  he  is  led  from  the 
simple  tone  of  music  to  the  full  scale,  from  single 
colors  to  their  shades  and  harmonious  combinations. 

Once  baptized  into  sympathetic  communion  with  na- 
ture, and  the  harmony  of  colors  —  those  incalculable 
treasures  of  beauty  which  our  Mother  Earth  gives  so 
boundlessly  to  the  initiated  —  becomes  his  individual 
possession. 

Treasures  which  flame  in  a  thousand  colors,  yet  are 
not  seen,  which  sound  with  innumerable  voices,  yet 
are  not  heard,  save  by  the  elect  priesthood  of  poets 
and  painters  and  songwriters,  then  are  brought  home 
to  all,  for  all  should  be  priests  in  the  open  temple  of 


THE    SENSE    OF   HEARING.  119 

nature.  We  begin  to  be  well  informed  concerning  the 
life  and  customs  of  savage  tribes,  yet  very  little,  com- 
paratively, is  known  of  their  relations  to  and  conceptions 
of  nature,  except  that  their  language  contains  poetical 
treasures,  indicating  their  spiritualized  sense  and  dra- 
matic comprehension  of  nature.  Here  love,  in  true 
companionship  with  nature,  hands  down  from  generation 
to  generation  its  riches  afresh,  felt  anew  in  their  fullness, 
because  filled  afresh  by  individual  experience.  The  con- 
centration in  our  large  cities,  the  artificiality  of  living, 
the  complexity  of  our  wants,  the  wide  field  of  our  pleas- 
ures, have  led  us  away  from  Nature,  and  still  worse  from 
her  purifying  influences,  which  offer  to  man  in  utter 
unselfishness  all  the  gifts  she  possesses.  She  teaches 
him  a  moral  truth  which,  once  brought  home,  cannot 
tail  to   elevate  and  ennoble  him. 


VIII.    THE   SENSE   OF  HEARING. 

The  foregoing  statements  have  shown  to  what  extent 
the  sense  of  sight  is  capable  of  perceiving  differences, 
practically  and  intellectually.  The  sense  of  hearing  pos- 
sesses similar  powers,  though  its  application  is  less  wide. 
Professional  musicians  are  able  to  distinguish  the  differ- 
ence  between  two  tones,  the  pitch  of  which  shows  a  differ- 
ence in  sound-waves  of  one  thousand  to  one  thousand  and 
one,  which  is  equal  to  one  twenty-fourth  of  a  half-tone. 
Early  exercise  or  special  talent  is  of  course  needed,  to 


120  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

develop  such  sharpness  and  accuracy  of  the  hearing. 
Not  to  all  men  do  the  gods  accord  the  superior  gift  of 
musical  talent,  but  all  men  most  emphatically  have  the 
right  to  claim  a  thorough  culture  of  the  sense  of  hearing. 
The  perfection  of  this  sense  among  savages  is  well  known, 
and  the  time  may  and  should  be  not  far  distant  when  in- 
struments shall  be  used  to  test  the  capacity  of  hearing 
among  officials  and  children,  in  the  same  manner  as  prac- 
ticed now  with  the  sense  of  sight.  This  culture  would 
free  our  children  in  school  from  some  of  the  unjust  blame 
they  receive;  as  Dr.  Seguin  says,  "The  culture  of  the 
hearing  and  the  touch  have  culminated  in  a  new  enjoy- 
ment." The  writer  has  often  been  surprised  to  observe 
the  quickness  with  which  children  learn  to  distinguish 
sounds,  after  a  very  few  repetitions  of  plays  arranged  for 
this  purpose.  Not  less  surprising  has  been  the  recognition 
of  the  voice  by  little  children  blindfolded  for  this  test ; 
and  these  plays  should  be  played  as  early  as  possible. 

IX.  EMMA  MARWEDEL'S  PRACTICAL  GYMNASTICS 
FOR  THE  IMPROVEMENT  OF  THE  SENSE  OF 
HEARING. 

The  materials  for  this  consist  of  ten  series  of  metals, 
wood,  and  other  substances,  which  by  their  differences 
in  size  offer  extensive  exercise  of  the  sense  of  hearing. 
This  game  should  be  played  by  the  whole  family  in  the 
nursery. 


EDUCATION   THROUGH    THE    SENSE    OF   HEARING.        121 
X.     EDUCATION   THROUGH   THE   SENSE  OF   HEARING. 

Singing  and  speaking  are  the  fullest  expression  of 
mari) — a  free  gift,  without  regard  to  wealth,  rank,  sex, 
or  age. 

Madam  Catalini  was  received  with  the  same  enthu- 
siasm when  she  was  eighty  years  old  as  when  she  ap- 
peared first  at  eighteen  years  old. 

Hardly  any  nation  is  without  some  original  melodies, 
which  are,  in  most  cases,  traditional  remnants  of  unknown 
ages.  Italians  sing,  Swedes  sing,  Germans  sing.  All 
these  are  recognized  as  musically  gifted  nations.  Singing 
and  speaking  raised  to  the  highest  and  purest  art  should 
have  their  place  at  every  cradle,  where  the  tunes  sung 
should  be  soul-awakening  hymns  of  sweetness  and  deli- 
cacy. In  every  home,  in  every  school,  in  our  mar- 
kets and  thoroughfares,  sweet  sounds  should  rise  like 
stone  walls  against  the  present  vulgarity  in  tones  and 
words.  Fortunately,  our  own  country  feels  the  necessity 
of  moral  elevation  through  music ;  and  our  Bureau  of 
Education  has  issued  a  circular  in  regard  to  this  subject, 
which,  in  connection  with  similar  efforts  coming  from  the 
headquarters  of  the  Sol-Fa  system,  will  soon  bear  fruit. 
To  this  end  the  color  plays  and  the  ball  plays  are  ac- 
companied by  simple  tunes. 


122  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

XI,     THE    SENSE   OF  SMELL. 

The  sense  of  smell  in  man  and  animals  has  of  late  re- 
ceived much  attention  from  scientists,  and  the  discus- 
sion of  the  question  is  still  going  on  as  to  whether  an 
extreme  sensitiveness  of  the  organ  of  smell  may  not 
outweigh  its  usefulness.  The  following  is  a  statement 
of  the  delicacy  of  the  sense  of  smell  in  man,  which  in 
animals  is,  however,  greatly  superior :  — 

"The  delicacy  of  the  sense  of  smell  has  been  shown 
by  a  series  of  experiments  by  Messrs.  Fischer  and  Pet- 
zoldt.  In  a  room  of  230  cubic  meters'  capacity,  tightly 
closed,  a  small  quantity  of  the  substance  was  thoroughly 
mixed  with  the  air,  and  the  observer  then  admitted.  Of 
different  substances,  it  was  found  that  the  smallest  amount 
was  .01  of  a  milligram  of  mercaptan.  It  was  estimated 
that  1,460,000,000th  part  of  a  milligram  of  this  substance 
was  recognizable." 

The  spectroscope  has  hitherto  been  considered  the 
most  delicate  of  all  means  of  analysis,  indicating  less  than 
a  millionth  part  of  a  milligram  of  sodium  ;  but  the  sense 
of  smell,  in  the  case  of  mercaptan,  at  least,  is  seen  to 
be  two  hundred  times  more  delicate.  How  much  more 
sensitive  the  sense  of  smell  may  be  in  some  dogs  we 
cannot  decide,  but  it  must  be  considerably  more  acute. 

Though  we  accept  the  fact  that  the  savage  enjoys  a 
greater  amount  of  general  sense  development,  this  is  said 
not  to  be  the  case  as  regards  the  sense  of  smell,  and  that 


THE    SENSE    OF   SMELL.  123 

its  deficiency  is  observed  as  well  among  civilized  as  un- 
civilized races,  when  not  developed  and  strengthened  by 
use.  The  case  of  Julia  Brace,  who,  though  blind,  was 
able  to  sort  the  wash  of  the  institute  through  her  sense  of 
smell,  brings  her  required  capacity  almost  into  the  condi- 
tion of  concentrating  her  life's  experience  in  this  one  sense. 
The  following  are  practical  illustrations  of  the  possibility 
of  the  sense  of  smell  in  man  :  Mr.  Moyle  mentions  a 
blind  man  at  Utrecht  who  could  distinguish  different 
metals  by  their  different  odors;  and  Martials  recalls  the 
case  of  a  person  named  Mamurra,  who  could  tell  by 
smelling  whether  copper  was  true  Corinthian  or  not. 
Travelers  in  India  have  recorded  that  certain  natives,  who 
habitually  abstained  from  the  use  of  animal  food,  have  a 
sense  of  smell  so  exquisitely  delicate  that  they  can  tell 
from  which  well  a  vessel  of  water  has  been  taken.  It  has 
been  related  that  by  smell  alone  the  negroes  of  the  Antilles 
will  distinguish  the  footsteps  of  a  Frenchman  from  those 
of  a  ne<n*o.  Marce  Marci  has  left  an  account  of  a  monk 
in  Prague,  who  could  tell  by  smelling  anything  given  to 
him  who  had  last  handled  it.  The  guides' who  accompany 
travelers  in  the  route  from  Aleppo  to  Babylon  will  tell 
by  smelling  the  desert  sand  how  near  they  are  to  the  latter 
place.  John  of  Liege,  when  a  boy,  flying  in  terror  from 
soldiers  in  time  of  war,  passed  many  years  alone  in  the 
depths  of  the  forest  of  Ardennes,  where  he  lived  upon  roots 
and  wild  fruits,  the  presence  of  which  he  could  detect  from 
a  great  distance  by  the  smell  alone.     In  the  same  way  he 


124  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

detected  the  presence  of  men  long  before  they  came  in 
sight.  Dr.  E.  Seguin  says,  in  his  "  Education  of  the  Med- 
ical Senses":  "The  profession  of  the  writer  enables  him 
to  show  from  it  how  much  the  efficiency  of  our  intellectual 
education  depends  upon  an  equally  thorough  sense  train- 
ing. I  premise  that  the  capacity  most  needed  by  a  phy- 
sician does  not  come  to  him  so  much  from  the  stores  of 
general  knowledge  and  of  professional  traditions,  as  from 
the  ready  capability  of  his  systematically  trained  organs 
of  perception  (the  senses)  and  of  execution  (the  hand). 
The  first  sense  called  into  requisition  in  medical  practice 
is  that  of  smell ;  before  the  door  of  a  patient  is  opened, 
this  sense  can  often  tell  what  is  the  matter  with  him.  It 
must  be  educated  by  a  special  curriculum,  without  the 
help  of  the  other  senses,  not  only  to  the  point  of  being 
able  to  diagnose  almost  every  disease,  at  least  any  group 
of  diseases,  by  their  specific  odors,  but  to  that  of  recog- 
nizing when*  patients  and  their  surroundings  are  in 
dangerous  milieux,  affected  with  concealed  poisons, 
etc." 

Our  daily  existence,  greatly  improved  of  late  by  hy- 
gienic science  in  the  art  of  living,  demands  emphati- 
cally the  full  co-operation  of  the  sense  of  smell.  We 
have  not  learned  to  consider  the  lack  of  this  organ  as 
an  incompleteness  in  man.  No  one  can  doubt  that  this 
sense  is  to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  essential 
safeguards  of  a  healthy  and  pleasant  condition  ;  and  that 
its    development    should    come    under    the    educational 


EDUCATION   THROUGH   THE   SENSES.  125 


requirements  of  childhood.     To  this  end  the   following  is 
arranged. 

XII.    EDUCATION  THROUGH  THE    SENSES    OF   SMELL- 
ING, TASTING,  AND   TOUCHING. 

Emma  Marwedel's  gymnastic  of  smell,  called  Smell 
Gymnastics,  consists  of:  — 

1.  Vessels  containing  essences  of  flowers. 

2.  Vessels  containing  essences  of  fruits. 

3.  Vessels  containing  essences  of  medicinal  plants. 

EDUCATION   THROUGH   THE    SENSE   OF    SMELL. 

In  considering  the  education  of  the  sense  of  smell,  we 
can  readily  recall  early  associations  through  this  organ. 
Who  is  it  that  has  never  felt  hours  of  love  and  high 
resolve,  days  of  friendship  and  youth,  scenes  of  home  and 
home  life,  suddenly  opened  by  the  magic  association  of 
odors  ?  What  tender  memories  are  brought  back  by  the 
fragrance  of  the  first  lilac,  of  a  certain  rose,  of  haymak- 
ing, of  a  corn-field,  or  a  violet !  These  recall  to  us 
the  simplicity  and  purity  of  life,  and  who  can  tell  how 
often  a  soul,  about  to  go  astray,  has  been  checked  in 
evil  by  such  means  as  a  bunch  of  lilies-of-the-valley, 
this  emblem  of  childhood's  love  fresh  from  the  woods, 
once  placed  in  the  hands  by  a  loving  mother? 

THE    SENSE    OF    TASTE. 

The  sense  of  taste  is  the  capacity  to  discriminate 
between  the  different  effects  produced  by  the  contact  of 
substances  with  the  organs  of  taste,  the  tongue,  and  its 


126  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

seat  of  sensibility,  the  mucous  membrane.  That  this 
capacity  varies,  nay,  more,  that  it  keeps  equal  pace  with 
the  degree  of  mental  and  physical  development  of  man, 
is  unquestioned.  It  presents  a  condition  which,  far  from 
its  natural  intention  to  serve  as  self-protection  and  self- 
conservation,  becomes  not  seldom  a  power  to  which  man 
falls  a  victim. 

As  regards  the  former,  it  has  been  stated  by  author- 
ities that  taste,  as  a  continuity  of  structure  in  the  tongue, 
has  seemingly  the  power  to  discriminate  between  digest- 
ibility in  telling  at  once  whether  a  substance  will  agree 
or  disagree  with  our  stomachs. 

Eecognizing  the  animal  instincts  in  using  taste  and 
smell  combined  as  a  safeguard  against  injuries,  taste 
demands  not  less  educational  consideration  than  other 
senses.  Admitting  a  priori  the  possibility  and  necessity 
of  the  development  of  taste,  we  may  ask,  How  can  and 
shall  we  be  educated  through  the  sense  of  taste,  practi- 
cally and  morally?  1.  Practically:  this  is  accomplished 
in  training  the  sense  of  taste  by  comparison,  in  placing 
different  substances  on  the  tongue  of  the  child  with  closed 
eyes,  and  by  making  a  substance  stronger  or  weaker  by 
mixing  it,  using  its  different  degrees  of  strength  as  a 
test  for  comparative  judgment.  2.  Morally :  by  allow- 
ing no  child  to  become  a  slave  to  the  constant  satisfaction 
and  consideration  of  this  sense.  "  It  is  the  first  drop 
that  tells,"  is  a  common  saying,  when  we  see  men  and 
women  fall  below  the  lowest.     Why  ?     Is  it  the  drop,  or 


EDUCATION   THROUGH   THE    SENSES.  127 


the  want  of  self-control,  which  could  not  resist?  When,  as 
it  is  said,  we  have  a  State  in  the  Union  which  contains  the 
largest  number  of  rum-shops,  —  consumes  eighteen  mill- 
ions of  dollars  for  sugar  and  candy,  and  produces  sev- 
enteen millions  worth  of  gold,  —  we  ask,  Is  there  not  a 
logical  connection  between  these  three  parts?  And 
would  its  standard  not  rise,  if  indulgence  for  sweets  did 
not  begin  in  the  cradle?  It  seems  as  if  the  world  had  no 
comprehension  of  these  logical  consequences.  The  young 
child  tied  in  its  "  high  chair  "  is  actually  trained,  as  Theane 
says,  "  to  want  everything  "  and  H  always  the  best.*' 

Until  we  reach  out  educationally  for  greater  simplicity 
and  frugality,  our  vices  ivill  not  decrease.  In  the  same 
degree  as  we  pity  a  person  under  the  ban  of  depend- 
ence on  his  whims  in  eating  and  drinking,  we  should 
learn  to  honor  and  respect  the  man  or  woman  who  eats  or 
drinks  to  live,  —  a  point  with  which  we  should  impress 
our  children  deeply.  This  excludes,  by  no  means,  the 
art  of  preparing  and  serving  food.  Food  well  prepared 
and  tastefully  served  is  an  essential  part  of  home  and 
social  life,  deserving  the  best  will  and  the  best  talents. 
It  is  its  exaggerations  which  draw  man  down  to  a  ma- 
chine of  digestion  constantly  at  work. 

Our  children  should  know  this  danger,  and  be  led  to 
avoid  it. 

THE    SENSE    OF   TOUCH. 

While  the  skin  appears  to  contain  the  sense  of  touch,  it 
is,  in  fact,  the  nerves  which  form  the  sensory  or  pos- 


/ 
128  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

terior  roots  of  the  spinal  nerves  for  the  limbs  and  trunk, 
and  certain  of  the  cerebral  nerves  for  the  head,  face, 
mouth,  and  tongue.  It  is  clear  that  considering  the  exten- 
sion of  this  sense,  and  its  direct  communication  with  our 
daily  actions,  its  value  becomes  as  great  as  our  dependence 
on  it.  The  experience  gained  by  the  blind  and  idiots 
has  taught  us  considerably  of  late,  yet  ouside  of  Froebel's 
system  we  have  no  systematic  development  for  our  chil- 
dren. This  has  to  be  changed  in  our  common  curriculum 
of  instruction,  and  a  systematic  training  must  begin  in 
earliest  life. 

The  fact  that  a  soft  touch  with  a  feather  on  the  ear  pro- 
duces greater  sensations  than  a  hard  pressure,  shows  the 
delicacy  and  sensibility  of  the  nerve-sense.  And  it  was 
for  this  reason,  namely,  to  direct  mothers'  attention  to  a 
practical  development  of  the  sense  of  touch,  that  Froebel 
suggestively  proceeded  from  the  rough  to  the  smooth, 
from  the  soft  to  the  hard  ball,  in  his  method,  thereby 
opening  the  widest  range  for  a  development  in  touch.  It 
is  therefore  expected  that  no  mother  in  the  nursery, 
no  kindergarten,  and  no  school  will  fail  to  exercise  in 
the  most  original  and  spontaneous,  yet  most  methodical 
extension,  the  sense  of  touch.  Even  the  impression  of 
heat  and  cold  and  its  intermediate  condition,  not  less 
weight,  size,  and  shape,  become  obligatory  exercises  in 
home  and  school  for  a  normally  developed  child.  As 
regards  weight,  a  special  arrangement  is  made,  known  as 
Emma  MarwedeFs    Gymnastic  of  the  Sense  of  Weight, 


SENSE   INFLUENCE.  129 

consisting   of  a   scale   of  weight   of  the   same   size   for 
practical  exercises. 

XIII.     SENSE  INFLUENCE   ON   THE    DEVELOPMENT   OF 

LOGIC. 

Having  commented  in  our  opening  sentence  on  the 
importance  of  sense  development  in  the  development 
of  the  human  race,  we  must  not  undervalue  its  relation 
to  abstract  thought.  Eight  seeing,  right  hearing,  right 
feeling,  evidently  lead  to  right  thinking,  right  speak- 
ing, and  right  acting.  The  power  of  conceiving  at 
once  the  unity  of  manifoldness,  and  the  manifoldness 
in  the  unity,  develops  unconsciously  a  logical  concep- 
tion of  all  objects.  The  early  play  exercises  of  the 
child,  which,  in  FroebeFs  method,  suggest  the  inven- 
tion of  harmonious  combinations  of  form  and  color, 
have  never  from  this  point  of  view  been  meaningless 
to  the  writer;  on  the  contrary,  they  seem  to  carry  a 
valuable  mental  training,  by  no  means  to  be  neglected 
in  the  nursery.  About  three  years  ago,  Prof.  Stanley 
Hall  arranged,  in  connection  with  his  inquiries  of  "What 
Children  Know,"  a  list  to  be  used  in  Boston  for  the 
examination  of  children  entering  the  public  schools. 
This  list  consisted  of  questions  concerning  animals, 
plants,  human  beings,  and  domestic  conditions,  and 
yielded  valuable  results  in  statistics.  At  Kansas  City 
the  experiment  was  repeated,  and  colored  children 
being  included  in  the    examination,  they  were  awarded 


130  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

the  prize.  It  was  thus  made  clear  that  the  suscep- 
tibility to  individual  sense  impression,  and  that  power 
of  imagination  which  is  very  strong  in  the  colored  race, 
had  caught  the  logic  of  things  directly  from  form, 
color,  and  use,  by  experience  and  without  teaching. 
The  observations  on  Preyer's  child  show  how  early  (at 
nine  months  old)  the  baby  reached  out  for  the  logic 
of  things  (which  is  identical  with  the  logic  of  truth), 
—  a  reaching  out  for  which  we  give  it,  in  most  cases, 
nothing,   unless  indeed  it  be  "a  stone  for  bread."* 

Preyer's  child  was  six  months  old  before  it  followed 
with  its  eagerly  questioning  look  any  object  it  dropped 
on  the  floor.  This  demonstrated  clearly  the  equal 
amount  of  intelligence  and  practical  exercise  which 
was  needed  to  perfect  the  sense  of  sight  into  intel- 
lectual use.  All  power  of  perception  is  measured  by 
the  precision  and  quickness  with  which  similar  and 
dissimilar  qualities  are  perceived  in  a  given  time ; 
which,  supplemented  by  refinement  of  distinction  and 
conception,  present  the  whole  foundation  of  later  in- 
struction. 

What  does  not  a  clever  horseman  see  in  a  horse, 
where  those  with  an  unskilled  eye  see  but  a  few  points  ? 
How  much  does  a  physician,  an  actor,  read  from  the 
face,  the  gait,  the  speech,  etc.,  where  an  untrained  eye 


*  Sir  John  Lubbock,  referring  to  the  inefficiency  of  the  development 
of  the  senses  of  civilization,  as  in  savage  tribes,  ignores  the  educa- 
tional influences  through  the  development  of  the  senses. 


SENSE   INFLUENCE.  131 

and  mind  sees  nothing?  What  is  disclosed  to  the 
botanist  in  a  single  plant,  when  he  has  learned  to  rec- 
ognize its  countless  treasures,  which  we  do  not  see, 
because  we  were  never  taught  to  find  them?  What 
does  a  landscape  painter  not  see,  where  an  ordinary 
person  sees  almost  nothing,  being  devoid  of  a  clear 
conception  of  colors  and  their  associate  tints?  Helm- 
holtz,  the  distinguished  professor  of  physics,  demands  the 
earliest  color  training  for  children,  referring  to  the  ex- 
isting difficulty  in  distinguishing  the  pure  blue,  in  which 
learned  opticians  often  fail.  Recognizing,  therefore,  the 
necessity  of  early  sight  exercises,  no  mother  should 
withhold  them  from  her  child.  For  this  the  ring  play 
is  attractive  as  well  as  useful,  affording  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  increase  the  given  patterns  by  new  inven- 
tions. 

XIV.     SENSE  INFLUENCE   ON    ORIGINALITY   OP     CON- 
CEPTION. 

Like  to  the  gradual  acquisition  of  verbal  expression  is 
the  child's  learning  the  mute  language  of  each  thing 
around  it.  Besides  the  wonderful  power  of  expressing 
itself  without  words,  it  learns  without  words  the  full 
meaning  of  things.  With  this  capacity,  the  child  becomes 
at  the  very  outset  of  life  an  original  recipient  and  an  origi- 
nal reproducer.  Any  interference  with  this  inherent  nat- 
ural power  results  in  death  to  the  creativeness  of  the 
child,  and  this  is  the  very  reason  why  a  delayed  power  of 


132  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

speech,  instead  of  being  deplored,  should  be  fostered,  since 
the  hackneyed  every-day  phrases  which  are  taught  the 
child  tend  to  overlay  and  kill  out  original  perception, 
and  subsequently  original  description.  Especially  is  this 
true  of  objects  containing  the  elementary  qualities  com- 
mon to  all,  and  which  should  be  left  to  the  child's  own 
discovery  and  original  classification. 

XV.    SENSE  INFLUENCE  ON  IMAGINATION  AND 
MEMORY. 

Great  attention  has  been  directed  of  late  to  the  power 
of  forming  internal  pictures,  or  of  "  visualizing,"  as  Fran- 
cis Galton  calls  it,  the  scenes  of  the  past,  and  reviewing 
past  sensations  with  the  aid  of  the  imagination.  The  per- 
manent gaining  of  knowledge  depends  largely  on  this 
power  of  visualizing  events.  Children  possessing  this 
gift  not  only  acquire  more  easily,  but  forget  less  quickly. 
Modern  teaching  therefore  recognizes  in  this  power  of 
associating  ideas,  vivified  by  the  imagination,  and  supple- 
mented by  objects  or  the  representation  of  objects,  the 
true  method  of  all  learning.  Francis  Galton  announces 
the  interesting  fact  that  mind-pictures  of  the  kind  referred 
to  were  characteristics  of  several  members  of  one  family 
(in  this  case  a  curious  visualizing  of  number  forms  in 
colors),  and  that,  existing  from  babyhood,  it  proved,  not 
only  that  it  had  passed  into  an  inherited  function,  but 
that  it  is  one  of  the  faculties  earliest  developed. 

Children's   plays  and   dreams  consist  of  introductions 


SENSE   INFLUENCE.  IBS 

• 

of  sense  impressions,  transmuted  by  imagination,  and 
stamped  with  their  own  individuality ;  while  the  ease, 
exactness,  and  extent  of  these  active  reproductions  de- 
pend on  the  nutrition  and  exercise  supplied  by  surround- 
ings. Aside  from  being  a  reproductive  faculty,  imagina- 
tion in  its  highest  function  combines  and  recombines 
original  conceptions  into  creative  thoughts  and  acts. 
Memory  is  but  the  storehouse  of  connected  and  discon- 
nected facts  and  events,  of  harmonies  and  discords,  of 
form,  color,  and  sound ;  in  a  word,  of  all  mental  acquisi- 
tions, whether  from  without  or  within.  Imagination  is 
the  transforming  fire  which  fell  once  from  heaven  to 
earth,  never  losing  its  double  power  of  blessing  or  de- 
stroying, and  is  of  far  graver  educational  importance  than 
the  attention  we  bestow  on  it  would  lead  us  to  suppose. 
Words  cannot  tell  what  divine  illumination  flashes  upon 
the  child  in  these  early  waking  hours  of  his  imagination, 
drawing  him  up  and  away  from  all  that  is  base  and  hurt- 
ful ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  what  lurid  lights  may  not  lend 
fascination  to  low  propensities  which  have  perhaps  been 
induced  by  his  early  associations.  Besides  a  direct  edu- 
cational necessity  for  cultivating  the  imaginative  faculties 
through  sense  impressions,  there  stares  us  in  the  face 
another  urgent  human  need,  to  which  imagination  must 
respond,  if  it  is  to  be  answered  at  all ;  namely,  the  need 
of  something  to  aid  man  in  overcoming  the  bald  mo- 
notony  and  adverse  conditions  of  the  daily  routine  of 
life.     The  power  of  retaining  and    organizing  facts,  of 


134  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

associating  and  disconnecting  parts,  of  changing,  com- 
bining, and  assimilating  the  details  of  life,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  take  at  any  moment  a  clear  and  serene  survey 
of  special  and  general  relations,  is  both  the  sign  and  the 
result  of  the  intelligent  use  of  spontaneous  imaginative 
force.  Idealizing  the  impressions  of  the  realities  of  life 
lifts  man  to  a  higher  moral  and  aesthetic  conception  of 
the  social  condition  of  all  men.  No  preacher,  no  teacher, 
no  orator,  and  no  writer  can  reach  success  without  its 
magic  aid.  But  most  of  all  is  it  needed  in  our  homes. 
The  mother,  the  all-tranquillizing  spirit  of  the  household, 
finds  it  the  gift  richest  in  blessings  she  possesses,  and  it 
is  the  crown  of  true  fatherhood.  So  great,  in  a  word,  is 
the  potency  of  imagination  in  making  the  home  life,  all 
life,  beautiful  and  beneficent,  that  it  should  be  considered, 
nurtured,  and  directed  from  the  earliest  beginning  of 
education.  The  mother  should  know  how  to  foster  it 
even  in  the  cradle,  attaching,  as  Seguin  says,  "an  idea  to 
every  form,  giving  form  to  every  idea,"  so  enabling  little 
children  to  receive  a  physical  impression  or  image,  and 
to  store  it  in  the  memory,  whence  they  can  call  it  at  will, 
either  to  idealize  it,  or  to  combine  it  with  others  for 
after-enjoyment.  In  practice,  such  a  training  of  the 
imagination  is  rendered  easy  by  beginning  with  simple 
materials  on  a  rational  psycho-physiological  plan.  As 
regards  the  development  of  memory  by  early  sense 
impressions,  we  have  indicated  already  the  capacity  for 
visualizing  facts  as  the  true  source  of  all  learning. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CHILD'S  EARLIEST  CONCEPTION  OF  COMFORT  AND 
DISCOMFORT  DEVELOPING  EMOTIONS. 

I.  The  Study  of  Emotions  and  Temperaments.  —  II.  Educational  Direction 
of  the  Temperament.  —  III.  Sense  Influence  developing  Sympathetic 
Emotions  and  a  Happy  Temperment.  —  IV.  Sympathetic  Emotions 
fostering  Innate  Activities. 

I     THE   STUDY   OF   EMOTIONS  AND    TEMPERAMENTS. 

Preyer's  investigations,  comparing  the  temperament 
of  the  newly  born  human  being  with  that  of  the 
newly  born  animal  at  the  same  period  of  life,  have  fur- 
nished the  world  with  most  valuable  details  concern- 
ing pre-natal  development  and  inherited  propensities. 
He  says :  "  Very  little  is  known  regarding  the  inherited 
or  acquired  functions  of  the  brain  ;  although  the  truth 
and  importance  of  these  facts  are  recognized,  and  the 
question  most  important  to  be  considered,  is  the  earli- 
est phenomena  as  exhibited  in  each  individual  case,  in 
order  to  avoid  being  confused  by  varied  appearances 
and  opinions.  Above  all,  we  must  not  doubt  that  the 
fundamental  and  spiritual  functions  which  appear  after 
birth,  were  created  before  birth,  because,  if  they  did 
not  exist  before  birth,  the  question  of  their  origin 
would  remain  forever  unanswered." 


136  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Everything  goes  to  indicate  a  hereditary  transmis- 
sion of  sensibility.  This  capacity  does  not  evolve  a  new 
condition  in  every  being  out  of  insensible  matter,  but 
it  evolves  from  an  inherited  quality  in  the  ovum  acted 
upon  by  different  outside  stimulants  brought  into  activity, 
which,  though  hardly  perceptible  in  the  embrj'o,  become 
distinct  in  the  newly  born  child.  The  soul  of  the  newly 
born  child  is  not  like  a  tablet  on  which  the  senses  write 
their  first  impressions,  so  that  from  a  unit  of  spiritual 
conception  the  manifold  reciprocal  united  attributes  may 
proceed.  On  the  contrary,  the  tablet  is  already  filled 
with  many  illegible  and  unrecognizable  sounds ;  traces 
of  inscriptions  of  countless  sensuous  impressions  derived 
from  generations  past.  These  remnants,  defaced  and 
indistinct,  make  us  read  the  soul  tablet  without  any 
ciphers,  when  its  many  changes  are  investigated  at  the 
very  earliest  period  of  the  child's  life.  Still,  the  more 
attentively  we  observe  the  child,  the  easier  becomes  the 
deciphering  of  the  inscriptions  which  it  brought  with  it 
into  this  world.  These,  seemingly  incomprehensible  at 
first,  we  learn  to  see  in  time,  and  study  in  capital  letters. 

Many  of  these  qualities  are  never  developed  to  useful- 
ness, so  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  presume  that  a  man  can 
develop  exclusively  through  his  emotions,  his  concep- 
tions, and  his  power  of  will,  by  the  use  of  his  senses. 
This  would  give  hereditary  influences  equal  importance 
with  individual  activity  in  psychogenesis.  No  man  can 
be  called  strictly  self-made,  nor  is  he  capable  of  develop- 


THE    STUDY   OF   EMOTIONS   AND   TEMPERAMENTS.      137 

ing  his  psyche  by  his  own  life  experience ;  on  the  con- 
trary, each  individual  tries  to  cultivate  and  renew  the 
experiences  and  activities  of  his  ancestry.  It  therefore 
becomes  very  difficult  to  decipher  the  mystic  language 
of  the  soul  in  the  child.  "My  aim,"  says  Preyer,  "is 
to  introduce  the  soul-deciphering  as  the  chief  duty  of 
mothers."  Preyer  recognizes  in  each  individual  child 
two  starting-points  of  development,  namely,  inherited 
propensities  and  pre-natally  developed  qualities ;  stating 
that  their  existence  is  merely  indicated  in  the  germ, 
and  depends  for  growth  on  favorable  circumstances. 
This  brings  the  mother  and  father  at  once  face  to 
face  with  the  necessity  of  knowing  the  individual 
qualities  of  the  child  committed  to  their  care,  and 
their  responsibility  for  the  right  unfolding  of  its  higher 
inborn   faculties  into  a  good  and  happy  being. 

When  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia  and  his  wife 
became  aware  of  the  self-consciousness  and  tendency 
to  haughtiness  of  their  eldest  son,  they  at  once  looked 
for  such  a  change  of  his  surroundings  as  would  coun- 
teract  this  probably  inherited  disposition  of  the  young 
prince,  —  a  disposition  necessarily  nourished  by  his 
present  circumstances.  A  parental  care  directed  them 
finally  to  a  peoples-kindergarten,  presided  over  by  a 
kindergartener  of  such  integrity  of  character  that  she 
would  not  admit  the  child  as  a  prince,  but  only  as  a 
child  among  children,  in  the  miniature  society  where 
all  were  equal.      Here  the  noble  mother  and  father  of 


138  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

the  prince  watched  for  many  hours  a  day  the  desired 
educational  influence  on  their  child  of  this  equality. 
Power  of  early  insight  into  the  natures  of  children, 
with  sufficient  knowledge  and  a  clear  sense  of  parental 
responsibility  as  regards  hereditary  influences,  will  in- 
duce in  parents  educational  precautions  similar  to  those 
in  training  their  offspring.  The  mother  of  the  future 
will,  more  than  an  ordinary  gardener,  bend  the  sapling 
carefully  in  the  direction  in  which  it  should  grow,  not 
waiting  to  let  his  heart  draw  him  before  she  attempts 
to  bend  its  then  too  inflexible  atoms.  Emotions  indicate 
the  most  visible  expressions  of  individual  conceptions. 
These  develop,  according  to  Preyer,  in  the  following  or- 
der:  first,  impulsive;  second,  reflexive ;  third,  instinc- 
tive ;  and   fourth,  conscious   movements. 

Preyer  mentions  the  first  experiment  with  his  child 
on  the  twenty-third  day  of  his  life,  using  the  flame 
of  a  candle  as  a  test  of  conscious  conception ;  the 
boy  followed  the  flame  of  the  candle  with  his  eyes 
again  and  again  with  such  signs  of  intelligence  that 
the  father  repeated  the  experiment  more  than  twenty 
times  on  the  same  day.  The  boy  seemed  to  expe- 
rience a  pleasant  sensation  from  the  shining  light 
of  the  flame.  Preyer  speaks  also  of  early  sensations 
of  comfort  and  discomfort  observed  on  new-born  babes, 
and  those  from  three  to  six  days  old,  by  placing  un- 
pleasant substances  on  their  tongues,  such  as  quinine, 
salt,  sulphur,  and  these  and  pleasant  substances  showing 


THE    STUDY   OF   EMOTIONS    AND   TEMPERAMENTS.        139 

the  same  effect  as  on  adults,  though  the  whole  vital  act 
was  entirely  a  reflexive  one. 

As  regards  the  four  kinds  of  motions,  Preyer,  refer- 
ring to  their  difference,  origin,  and  value,  remarks  as 
follows  :  7  The  impulsive  motions  are  the  least  control- 
lahle,  being  fully  independent  of  any  peripheric  stimu- 
lation, and  already  developed  in  the  embryo.  These 
appear  even  in  sleep.  Second,  reflex  movements  depend 
on  peripheric  sensations,  which  in  a  normal  condition 
follow  very  rapidly,  though  the  movements  are  uncon- 
scious to  the  child.  Third,  instinctive  movements  based 
on  previously  received  sensations,  needing  three  asso- 
ciate nerve  centers,  connected  morphologically.  The 
reflex  of  sensuous  impressions  create  impulsive  emotional 
activities,  aiming  at  a  certain  point,  but  unconsciously 
and  evidently  the  result  of  inheritance.  If  a  man  or 
an  animal  makes  a  motion  which  was  never  made  before, 
it  is'  no  longer  an  instinctive  movement.  Fourth,  con- 
scious movements  are  in  their  lowest  form  imitative, 
depending  on  sensuous  perceptions,  and  needing  at  least 
two  associative  nerve  centers,  as,  conception  of  time, 
including  space  and  pause.  Conscious  movements  are 
impossible  without  the  participation  of  the  large  brain ; 
while  the  first,  second,  and  third  kinds  of  movement 
may  be  made  without  the  assistance  of  the  brain.  Preyer 
regards  them  as  the  basis  of  all  existing  varieties  of 
sentient  movements,  of  which  No.  1  presents  purely 
physical  sensations.     No.  2,  peripheric,  purely  physical 

lUNIVEESITTJ 


140  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

sensations.  No.  3,  emotional.  No.  4,  conceptional  sen- 
sations. The  study  of  the  child  is  the  maris  full 
understanding  of  the  educational  value  of  the  foregoing 
knowledge.  It  is  clear  that  two  children,  of  whom  one 
makes  slow  and  passive  movements,  while  the  other 
answers  in  quick  excitement  to  every  sensation,  must 
differ  greatly  in  temperament,  and  that  a  great  differ- 
ence will  exist  between  these  two  children,  both  in 
their  self-development  and  the  labor  that  lies  before 
them.  We  have  learned  to  recognize  differences  be- 
tween the  normal  condition  of  the  child  and  a  condi- 
tion of  physical  and  mental  weakness,  but  we  ignore 
entirely  those  half-abnormal  conditions  which,  not 
being  correct  in  the  beginning,  grow  worse  and  be- 
come injurious  to  the  child,  and  consequently  to  man- 
kind. The  temperamental  condition  of  man  presented 
for  direction  in  the  earliest  period  of  his  life  is  one 
of  the  most  important  manifestations,  because  it  is 
based  on  inherited  propensities,  and  yet  it  is  the  one 
most  ignored.  Comparing  the  man  of  the  past  with 
the  man  of  the  present,  the  increase  of  thought  and 
action  is  striking.  No  one  can  fail  to  see  what  educa- 
tional and  social  advantages  have  been  derived  from 
the  past  by  the  present  existing  race  of  men.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  utter  lack  of  recognition  of  the 
rights  of  others,  the  blind,  restless  desire  for  change, 
the  haste  to  accomplish,  at  all  risks,  the  thirst  for  ex- 
citement,   for    glory    and    wealth,    and    the    unlimited 


EDUCATIONAL   DIRECTION    OF   THE    TEMPERAMENT.       141 

desire  to  gratify  the  lower  passions,  without  consider- 
ation for  the  rights  of  fellow-men,  in  body  and  soul, 
are  so  closely  connected  with  temperament  in  its  he- 
reditary influence,  that  every  mother  should  devote  her- 
self to  the  study  and  guidance  of  the  temperament  of 
her  child." 

H.     EDUCATIONAL  DIRECTION   OF  THE  TEMPERA- 
MENT. 

Preyer  says :  "  The  first  period  of  child  life  is  the 
most  uncomfortable  one.  It  experiences  hunger,  thirst, 
cold,  heat,  fatigue,  discomfort  of  position,  bad  air,  pain 
of  teething,  and  the  denied  desire  to  handle  objects." 
He  calls  attention  to  a  series  of  motions  used  by  the 
child  to  give  vent  to  the  feelings,  and  warns  the  mother 
against  the  theory  that  a  young  child  is  not  capable  of 
distinguishing  between  comfort  and  discomfort.  As 
long  as  the  knowledge  of  these  facts  was  left  to  tradi- 
tional influence,  devoid  of  scientific  truth,  though  based 
on  mother  love  and  mother  care,  an  excuse  could  be 
found  for  not  knowing  positively  the  wants  of  a  young 
child.  If  the  human  being  is  destined  to  enjoy  at 
least  equal  privileges  with  the  now  scientifically  reared 
fowls,  fish,  cattle,  and  even  pigs,  the  mother  of  our 
age  can  be  no  longer  excused  for  ignorance  in  hei 
special  sphere,  ordained  to  her  by  the  Creator.  A 
daily  paper  mentions  that  mothers  seek  mental  stim 
uiation    outside    of  their   domestic   life ;    in    the   study 


142  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD, 

of  languages,  music,  literature,  painting,  and  in  char- 
itable work ;  proposing  instead  the  attendance  of 
mothers'  classes.  We  are  very  far  from  wanting  to 
limit  woman's  culture,  and  a  broad  contact  with  the 
interests  of  the  past  or  the  present  social  problems ; 
but  considering  the  education  of  a  human  being,  it 
seems  as  if  woman  would  be  hardly  able  to  accomplish 
half  the  tasks  which  devolve  on  her  at  present.  It 
would  seem  that  attending  lectures  illustrated  by  able 
physicians,  visiting  hospitals,  asylums,  and  kindergar- 
tens, thereby  learning  to  compare  a  normal  with  ab- 
normal conditions  of  the  child,  and  by  discussing  these 
topics  with  experienced  mothers  and  nurses,  would 
open  to  women  a  field  of  further  study  in  the  science 
of  man,  embracing  psychology,  physiology,  history  of 
man,  history  of  education,  the  study  of  Froebel,  the 
study  of  temperance,  of  crime,  insanity,  idiocy,  suicide, 
and  kindred  topics.     # 


III.    SENSE    INFLUENCE    DEVELOPING    SYMPATHETIC 
EMOTIONS   AND   A  HAPPY  TEMPERAMENT. 

Accepting  the  idea  that  the  gradual  evolution  of  civili- 
zation is  repeated  in  each  man,  we  call  attention  once 
more  to  the  creation  and  elevation  of  home  and  family 
life  through  the  higher  emotions  and  affections.  Medical 
authorities  have  decided  that  the  greater  death-rate 
among  children  in  our  foundling  houses,  where  the  infants 


SENSE   INFLUENCE.  143 

are  provided  with  excellent  bodily  care  which  is  in  excess 
of  that  of  their  poor  home,  is  caused  by  the  want  of 
motherly  sympathies,  of  those  thousand  nameless  acts 
of  life-kindling  and  life-thrilling  love,  of  fondling  by 
brothers  and  sisters,  of  sympathetic  smiles  and  laughter. 
For,  to  the  child,  the  appropriate  nourishment  of  its 
sympathies  brings  life  and  growth  of  body  and  mind ; 
and  its  lack,  disturbance  and  death.  So,  too,  the  mo- 
notony of  impressions  to  which  we  condemn  our  babies, 
by  putting  a  shrill,  unsympathetic  whistle  or  harsh  rattle 
into  their  eager  little  hands,  for  months  without  change, 
becomes  unpardonable  when  considered  educationally. 
The  Greeks  amused  the  growing  infants  with  select  toys 
and  exquisite  music,  as  if  they  were  musical  critics ;  while 
we,  in  phrases  like  "What's  the  difference  for  a  baby? 
the  baby  won't  understand!"  or,  "The  baby  doesn't 
know  anything !  "  are  committing  an  error  bad  beyond 
measure  in  its  effects  on  the  progress  of  the  human 
race.  The  morning  is  dawning.  Psychology  and  physi- 
ology, including  heredity,  begin  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury to  hold  watch  over  the  cradle.  No  longer  will  it  be 
treated  as  a  mere  utility  piece,  to  be  pushed  into  a 
corner,  but  to  take  its  place  in  the  midst  of  the  family, 
like  the  ancient  altars  on  which  each  one  lays  down  the 
highest  offerings  of  his  better  nature.  We  blush  when 
we  compare  our  ignorance  of  child-nature  with  its  own 
wonderful  selfhood ;  working  silently  and  incessantly, 
as  it  does,  to  procure  its  mental  pabulum  and  to  nurture 


144  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD, 

its  expanding  mind.  We  begin  dimly  to  apprehend 
the  sacred  process  of  its  self-enfoldment.  The  past 
of  its  long  inheritance,  the  reflex  of  the  world  into  which 
it  is  born  and  lives,  trembles  in  its  tender  organism, 
escaping  in  its  plays  and  dreams,  as  expression  of  its 
individualized  sense  impressions,  to  be  organized  and 
directed.  Whoever  has  observed  childish  play  in  its 
purity,  must  have  marveled  at  the  fullness  of  thought 
and  poetry  which  it  clusters  about  the  most  trivial  facts 
of  life. 

No  worldly  wisdom,  nor  calculation,  nor  ambition, 
guides  the  little  symbolizing  artist  from  one  mind-pic- 
ture to  another.  A  few  little  stones,  or  dishes,  or  flowers, 
or  pieces  of  colored  paper,  are  sufficient  to  re-create  the 
world  of  wonders  it  carries  within.  Whoever  has  not 
felt  the  fresh  living  breath  of  nature,  childhood's  sacred 
myths,  the  lofty  dreams  of  eternal  happiness  bursting 
forth  in  holy  flames  from  its  temple  of  faith  and  hope 
and  love,  whoever  has  not  looked  into  a  child's  eyes  in 
such  moments  of  divine  ecstasy,  has  missed  the  highest 
baptism  man  receives  from  man.  This  is  the  time,  these 
are  the  moods,  when,  all  plastic  and  alert,  the  ardent 
young  being  is  ready  to  grasp  the  hand  of  any  sympa- 
thetic guide  who  will  lead  it  into  the  arena  of  life.  A 
thoughtful,  observing  mother  knows  how  easily  the 
youngest  child  is  brought  into  sympathetic  relations  with 
the  beautiful  through  music,  sweet  songs,  softly  spoken 
words,  the  charm  of  light  and  color ;  and  here  is  the  task 


SENSE   INFLUENCE.  145 

to  open  forever  the  avenues  of  beauty  and  goodness. 
For  this  identifying  of  the  sense  of  beauty  with  right- 
eousness, as  a  necessary  harmonious  connection  of  parts 
to  the  whole,  is,  in  the  culture  of  the  child,  of  most  vital 
importance.  Eefinement  of  pleasure,  creating  refinement 
of  thought,  leads  to  refinement  of  conduct,  forming 
finally  the  habit  of  mind  by  which  man  judges  his  rela- 
tions to  life  and  the  world ;  and  it  is  on  the  earliest 
guidance  of  man  in  the  child  that  we  rely  for  the  ful- 
fillment of  our  hopes  of  reform.  Until  the  state,  the  com- 
munity, and  the  individual  are  able  to  concede  this 
point  as  the  early  and  sufficient  preventive  of  our  moral 
deficiencies,  until  the  education  of  the  inner  man  ceases 
to  be  subordinated  to  the  practical  need  of  the  outer 
physical  man,  we  shall  never  evolve  into  the  highest 
perfection  possible  to  the  race. 

Almost  nineteen  centuries  have  passed  under  the  ban- 
ner of  Christianity,  of  brotherly  love,  of  forgiveness  of 
others'  faults,  of  justice  to  all,  and  we  are  not  far  enough 
advanced  to  settle  our  differences  of  political  opinion, 
except  with  murderous  weapons.  Francis  Galton  relates 
that  when  two  herds  of  wild  cattle  meet,  they  send 
out  on  each  side  the  best  qualified  animal  to  fight  for 
their  respective  parties ;  they  fight  in  single  combat, 
and  their  victory  is  respected  as  decisive.  How  much 
further  has  civilized  and  Christianized  humanity  pro- 
-essed  than  this?  We  stint  the  educational  fund,  but 
e  (jive  a  reward  to  Krujpp,  and  decorate  his  breast 


146  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

each  time  that  he  makes  an  improvement  of  the  terrible 
guns  with  which  men  are  to  kill  their  brothers  in  greater 
numbers  and  at  longer  distance. 

The  state  punishes  with  an  ignominious  death  the 
single  man  who,  even  under  the  stress  of  passion,  inten- 
tionally kills  another,  but  the  state  drills  thousands  of 
men  to  kill  thousands  of  other  men,  intentionally  and 
in  cold  blood.  Women  have  always  been  applauded  for 
the  grandeur  of  self-sacrifice  with  which  they  have  girded 
on  the  swords  of  their  husbands  and  sons,  to  fight  for 
enthusiastic  conviction ;  but  is  there  not  a  higher  gran- 
deur in  woman's  extirpating  in  the  cradle  the  very  spirit 
of  murder?  Mr.  Galton  speaks  of  the  blood  terrors 
experienced  among  half-wild  oxen  in  South  Africa,  on 
passing  some  spots  where  a  cow  had  been  killed  by  a 
bear.  They  seemed  maddened  by  the  smell,  and  per- 
formed a  curious  sort  of  war  dance.  In  contrast  with 
this,  he  speaks  of  seeing  a  well-dressed  child,  with  an 
innocent  look,  about  four  years  old,  poking  its  finger  into 
the  bleeding  carcass  of  a  sheep  hanging  by  a  butcher's 
stall,  while  the  nurse  was  within ;  and  also  of  nurses  with 
children  of  all  ages  watching  unconcernedly  and  even 
with  amusement  the  feeding  of  living  animals  to  the  wild 
beasts  in  the  Zoological  Gardens,  in  London.  The  chil- 
dren's indifference  to  the  terror  and  anguish  of  the  help- 
less victims  was  the  painful  element  in  the  spectacle. 
From  an  educational  point  of  view,  how  much  more 
highly  civilized  the  savage  women  of  South  Africa  may 


SENSE    INFLUENCE.  147 

be  called,  whose  attachment  to  their  domestic  fowls  is 
so  great,  their  sympathy  so  tender,  that  not  even  for 
money  will  they  let  one  of  them  be  killed ;  identifying 
themselves  socially  and  emotionally,  as  they  do,  with  the 
life  and  pain  of  these  dependent  creatures,  and  with  the 
life  and  pain  throbbing  through  all  being. 

Preyer's  little  boy  at  two  and  a  half  years  old, 
having  not  quite  finished  breakfast,  was  about  to  take 
another  biscuit,  when  his  father  said  to  him,  in  a  com- 
manding voice,  "My  child  is  not  hungry  and  must  lay 
down  his  biscuit  and  eat  no  more."  The  child  obeyed 
this  command  without  a  murmur,  which  showed  the 
weakness  of  his  will.  Yet  that  Preyer's  child  had  a 
will  and  a  strong  self-conscious  will,  as  every  child 
should  have,  is  shown  by  his  father's  account  of  his 
obstinacy,  in  crying,  and  throwing  himself  on  the  floor. 
These  two  facts  suffice  to  show  the  necessity  of  a  clear 
conception  of  hereditary  inclination.  When  Preyer  was 
sure  that  his  child  needed  nothing,  he  let  it  cry  for 
twenty  minutes,  to  have  it  learn  by  experience  that  its 
crying  was  useless,  and  so  prevent  its  repetition.  At 
such  times  especially  the  child  needs  the  educator's 
thoughtful  guidance.  Children,  far  from  being  in- 
dulged, should  be  carefully  strengthened,  their  future 
character  depending  greatly  on  the  earliest  training 
and  exercise  of  their  will-power.  Obstinacy  and  contra- 
diction are  in  most  cases,  when  not  inherited,  the  result  of 
early  educational  mistakes.     (See  "  Education  in  Japan.") 


148  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

The  exercise  of  obedience,  that  is,  respect  and  rever- 
ence for  the  experience  of  the  educator,  cannot  begin 
too  early.  Preyer  says  he  experienced  no  opposition 
from  his  boy  of  four  years  old  (the  time  when  he 
had  finished  his  book).  The  demands  for  obedience, 
he  says,  should  be  based  on  the  example  offered,  not 
only  in  being  strictly  truthful,  but  in  being  unchange- 
able in  our  commands,  and  in  watching  the  slightest 
deviation  from  them.  They  should  be  based  on  the 
mildness  of  love,  justice,  reason,  and  necessity,  and  so 
will  impress  even  the  baby  as  a  just  submission  to 
law ;  showing  that  there  is  in  general  an  innate  sym- 
pathy with  righteousness  in  the  child.  To  develop 
this  no  mother  should  fail  to  impress  her  child  with 
the  underlying  reason  for  her  request,  avoiding  all  un- 
necessary restriction  or  prohibition,  which  leads  some- 
times to  the  unpleasant  consequence  of  disobedience. 
(See  Herbert  Spencer's  "Education.")  Higher  concep- 
tions are  awakened  by  carefully  selected  impressions, 
developing  and  maintaining  higher  emotional  feelings ; 
directing  the  child's  will  and  desires  early  to  the  for- 
mation of  a  generous,  unselfish  character.  English 
friends  of  the  writer,  careful  educators  of  their  chil- 
dren, took  pains  to  keep  their  baby  in  a  room  where 
the  mother  could  always  watch  it.  This  was  done 
to  prevent  the  child  from  expressing  its  will  by  cry- 
ing. As  soon  as  the  child  awoke  from  sleep,  its 
wants   were    attended    to,  and    it    was   met    by   loving, 


SENSE   INFLUENCE.  149 

familiar  faces  and  its  happy  mood  thus  systematically 
fostered  by  serenity,  love,  and  attention  in  its  sur- 
roundings. How  many  thousand  hysterical  women 
might  thus  have  been  saved  from  their  painful  con- 
dition in  relation  to  society  and  the  human  race,  by 
not  transmitting  this  evil  to  other  future  generations  ! 
The  writer  has  observed  that  German  children  cry  the 
most.  After  these  are  the  English  children  ;  then  the 
French  children  ;  and  American  children  cry  the  least  of 
any,  especially  those  born  in  California.  An  unconscious 
direction  of  the  child's  individual  freedom  of  the  will, 
and  the  out-door  life,  doubtless  produce  this  result.  The 
surroundings  are  not  less  influential  on  the  child's 
quietness.  In  France  and  America,  families  are  much 
smaller.  This  gives  the  newly  born  child  the  privilege 
of  quiet  environment.  It  prevents  a  multitude  of  too 
early  and  too  violent  sensoric  emotions.  The  plastic 
features  of  the  Oriental  races,  the  perpetuation  of  the 
Roman  nose  among  the  French,  and  the  production  of 
the  Vulpine  nose  of  the  Americans,  and  their  fine  plas- 
tic features  as  a  race,  seem  to  result  from  this  early 
period  of  undisturbed  and  unemotional  growth.  It  is 
by  no  means  the  intention  of  the  writer  to  claim  an 
absolute  truth  for  these  opinions,  but  it  is  certain  that 
this  period  is  the  starting-point  for  all  future  mental 
diseases,  such  as  idiocy,  insanity,  and  crime,  and 
should  be  considered  with  all  the  information  our  age 
is  at  present  prepared  to  furnish. 


150  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  speaks  of  the  torture  to  which 
a  young  child  is  condemned  when  brought  up  in  lux- 
urious surroundings,  having  the  constant  craving  to 
touch  things"  it  can  never  reach.  This  shows  clearly 
that  children  born  in  humble  conditions,  and  still  more, 
those  born  under  the  influences  of  a  half-rural  life,  are 
those  who  regenerate  the  world  by  their  higher  phys- 
ical and  mental  powers,  which  city  life  so  mercilessly 
deteriorates.  It  is  evident  that  in  acknowledging  the 
influences  of  national,  family,  and  temperamental  types, 
we  admit  the  influence  of  habits  of  unconscious  imita- 
tion and  inherited  predispositions.  In  this  idea  Goethe 
sanguinely  predicts  a  race  of  children  born  educated, 
and  may  he  not  be  right  ?  In  the  child  we  deal  with  a 
self-conscious  and  self-willed  human  being,  unable  to 
speak,  and  yet  often,  indeed  almost  always,  ignored  in 
its  sign  language.  Who  can  tell  the  cravings  and  dis- 
appointments and  heart-breaking  rebukes  the  child's 
efforts  meet?  People  say,  "It  only  puts  things  in  its 
mouth,  or  throws  them  on  the  floor."  We  ask,  where 
should  it  put  things,  and  what  is  more  natural?  Is 
not  the  mouth  the  seat  of  taste?  as  Froebel  says,  ftThe 
central  organ  of  its  short  life's  experiences.  Besides, 
it  has  a  desire  to  help  itself  in  teething."  After  a 
month's  longing,  it  may  get  what  it  has  been  craving. 
Once  in  turning  it  round  it  drops  it  and  it  remains  un- 
returned.  This  one  experience  may  lay  the  foundation 
of  its  obstinacy,  willfulness,  and   rudeness.      Who   can 


SENSE    INFLUENCE. 


151 


tell?  All  we  know  is,  that  a  child  two  months  old 
already  gave  preference  to  a  certain  tune ;  so  its  likes 
and  dislikes  for  persons  and  objects  were  equally 
strong.  And  what  was  worse,  it  has  not  the  power  of 
expressing  them.  May  it  not  often  happen  from  this 
cause  that  naturally  and  gradually  impatient  manifes- 
tations arise  which  grow  later  into  permanent  ill-tem- 
per? It  is  natural  that  a  child  born  in  the  eighteenth 
century  must  differ  from  a  child  in  the  nineteenth 
century ;  that  the  child  of  the  nineteenth  century 
should  produce  different  results  from  its  earthly  ex- 
periences from  the  child  of  the  past,  and  that  the 
mother  and  father  should  prepare  their  child  in  the 
nineteenth  century  for  higher  conditions  than  those 
of  the  past.  Our  over-excited  mental  condition  shows 
plainly  the  errors  of  the  dark  side  of  advanced  civili- 
zation. And  herein  inust  be  said  again,  and  cannot 
be  enough  repeated,  that  until  we  abolish  ignorance 
and  the  tread-mill  fashion  of  actions  without  individual 
power  of  conception  by  women,  until  woman  learns  to 
regard  man  as  the  product  of  evolutional  development, 
and  until  she  is  able  to  comprehend  that  she,  as  the 
mother  of  the  race,  is  by  nature  and  functions  divinely 
selected  to  work  for  the  ideal  better  and  happier 
man,  —  until  this  condition  exists,  no  lasting  progress 
can  be  expected. 


152  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 


IV.     SYMPATHETIC  EMOTIONS   FOSTERING  INNATE 
ACTIVITIES. 

Preyer  states  that  grasping  movements,  accompanied 
by  expression  of  attention  and  pleasure,  were  made  by 
children  from  four  to  five  months  old.  From  this 
period  up  to  two  years  old  and  over,  we  deal  with  a 
self-conscious  and  self-willed  being,  unable  to  speak, 
yet  whose  sign-language  is  almost  ignored.  The  child 
throws  the  spoon  on  the  floor  to  enjoy  the  effect  of 
sound.  It  stretches  out  its  little  hands  in  sympathy 
with  all  it  sees  and  hears.  What  is  its  answer?  A 
rattle,  a  ring,  or  a  gray,  unattractive  ball  is  the  meager 
share  which  falls  into  poor  baby's  eager  hands  from 
the  bewildering  variety  of  the  glorious  high-colored 
riches  around  it.  Some  one  says,  "Give  it  anything; 
baby  does  not  care  what  it  is."  This  may  be  true  in 
some  cases,  but  doubtless  this  injustice  or  misappre- 
hension often  leads  to  ill-temper  in  the  child.  Think 
how  the  celebrated  naturalist,  Edwards,  the  son  of  a 
Scotch  cobbler,  was  misunderstood,  when  he  was  de- 
prived of  all  clothing  but  his  nightgown,  in  the  cold 
month  of  November,  in  order  to  hinder  him  from  going 
to  the  beach  to  get  crabs,  fish,  and  shells  to  serve 
his  investigations  of  nature.  Notwithstanding,  though 
not  yet  four  years  old,  he  went  to  the  beach,  and  filled 
the  lower  part  of  his  nightgown  with  shell-fish,  etc. 
Psychological  records  demonstrate  the  absolute  necessity 


SYMPATHETIC   EMOTIONS.  153 

of  the  earliest  satisfaction  of  the  emotional  and  sym- 
pathetic feelings  of  the  baby,  including  harmonious 
and  joyful  surroundings,  to  break  the  monotony  of 
its  life. 

Kousseau,  speaking  of  the  better  health  of  the  chil- 
dren of  the  middle  classes,  and  the  fewer  vexations 
and  irritations  in  their  early  life,  says :  "  What  artist 
would  remain  indifferent  if  an  unskilled,  careless  hand 
should  misuse  the  strings  of  his  instrument,  bringing 
from  it  confused,  unmusical  chords,  and  inharmonious 
vibrations?"  Does  not  the  nervous  system  of  the  human 
being  equal  the  most  delicate  instrument,  and  de- 
mand as  much  skill  in  manipulation  as  a  fine  harp  or 
violin?  With  the  increasing  study  of  early  psycho- 
logical development,  the  importance  of  the  right  con- 
ception of  fundamental  life  becomes  very  great. 
According  to  previous  statements,  we  find  the  inner- 
most germ  manifested  in  the  activities  of  the  emotional 
and  sympathetic  feelings.  No  later  period  in  life  can 
>e  compared  in  its  enormous  power  of  perception, 
awakened  by  sympathy  and  imagination  expressed 
by  language,  concluded  by  individual  abstraction  and 
comparison,  with  that  demonstrated  in  the  mental  and 
physical  activities  of  a  child  under  three  years  old ; 
and  this  not  as  the  result  of  intellectual  capacities,  but 
through  sympathetic  attraction,  awakening  an  eager  self- 
activity,  which  retains  the  impressions  of  those  objects 
which  meet  its  feelings. 


154  Conscious  motherhood. 

Can  we  imagine  a  single  day  with  its  hundreds  of  new 
impressions  and  experiences  for  the  child,  a  single  walk 
of  a  three-year-old  child?  Can  we  imagine  all  that  is 
unknown  to  it  and  has  to  be  investigated  by  its  own 
powers  of  observation,  —  the  houses,  their  divisions  and 
uses,  the  animals  he  meets,  the  flowers  and  trees  he 
sees,  grandfather's  house,  grandmother's  peculiarities, 
the  dealings  of  the  servants,  and  hundreds  of  other 
matters?  The  importance  is  not  alone  in  the  amount 
of  practical  knowledge  gained,  but  in  the  higher  spirit- 
ual connection  of  individual  conception  with  the  outer 
condition  of  things.  We  all  enjoy  the  beautiful  flashes 
from  the  inner  workshop  of  our  babies'  minds,  in  mold- 
ing the  outer  world  to  suit  their  own  fancies  in  word 
and  action.  How  rudely  and  misunderstandingly  we 
check  and  shorten  this  period  of  originality  as  to 
everything  it  sees,  by  seeking  to  make  our  baby  boy 
or  girl  at  once  into  the  desired  "  little  gentleman  or 
lady"!  The  writer  was  sadly  impressed  with  this,  on 
seeing  once,  in  a  restaurant,  a  little  ^girl  not  yet  able 
to  speak,  who  had  been  made  to  resemble  a  perfectly 
trained  lady,  and  what  was  worse,  she  was  aware  of 
it ;  she  held  and  placed  her  spoon  with  one  finger 
raised,  took  crackers  with  the  tips  of  her  fingers, 
wiped  her  mouth  and  fingers,  and  folded  her  napkin 
like  a  grown  person.  In  short,  in  her  every  action 
conscious  artificiality  was  shown,  and  what  was  still 
worse,    it   was  to   the   delight   of  the   company.     Who 


N 


SYMPATHETIC    EMOTIONS.  155 

can  estimate  the  bad  consequences  of  leading  a  child  so 
early  out  of  its  individual  nature,  forcing  it  into  a  dead, 
senseless  fashion  before  the  exercise  of  its  innate  powers 
of  forming  and  using  its  original,  creative,  sympathetic 
feelings,  —  at  an  age  when  individual  conception  and 
impulses  should  be  left  entirely  free  from  outward  re- 
straint or  misdirection  in  learning  grown  people's  arti- 
ficialities and  conventionalities?  The  child  should  be 
unconscious  of  observation,  save  when  it  is  necessary  to 
check  it  for  actual  wrong-doing.  We  cold-hearted,  un- 
interested grown  folks  make  our  children  suffer  from  our 
own  mental  conditions.  Our  own  indifference,  igno- 
rance, and  selfishness  may  often  be  traced  to  the  fact  that 
no  inward  warmth  or  light  was  kindled  in  us  by  early 
cultivation  of  our  sympathetic  emotional  feelings.  Here 
the  question  may  arise  as  to  whether  a  child  should 
be  constantly  furnished  with  new  objects  to  its  hands, 
making  it  believe  that  everything  was  at  its  command, 
ot  so ;  yet  no  human  being  can  be  taught  to  exer- 
cise higher  feelings  toward  its  fellow-being  before  it 
can  call  something  its  own.  This  is  manifest  in  the 
child's  instinctive  desire  to  make  everything  its  own. 
But  as  soon  as  this  disposition  goes  to  the  extreme, 
the  child  should  be  induced  to  give  at  least  a  part  of 
its  possessions  to  others,  making  the  idea  of  mine  and 
thine  at  once  clear.  Possession  as  well  as  desire  to 
get,  both  need  educational  direction. 

Many   bad   habits   arise   from    inherited    dispositions, 


156  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

but  very  many  more  entirely  ignored  by  parents  are 
caused  by  idleness,  the  waiting  for  food,  and  most  of 
all  a  misapprehension  of  and  disregard  for  the  child's 
first  desires.  The  sucking  of  its  fingers  or  blankets, 
or  biting  the  nails,  is  the  result  of  neglect.  Who 
knows  the  straits  to  which  we  drive  our  children  by 
depriving  them  of  their  sports  and  plays  in  the  open 
air,  and  of  such  right  companionship  as  is  needed  to 
satisfy  their  vivid  imaginations?  And  the  writer's  ex- 
periences have  been  such  as  to  prove  that  a  few 
weeks  of  isolated,  in-door  life  may  forever  destroy  the 
morals  of  the  child.  The  glowing  appreciation  of  a  toy 
leads  the  child  to  magnify  its  qualities  almost  into  an 
ideal.  This  association  of  toys  is  handed  down  from 
grandparent  to  grandchild,  and  who  can  tell  the  many 
feelings  and  domestic  virtues  clustering  around  such 
toys?  Unfortunately,  the  restlessness  of  the  present 
age,  the  narrowness  of  the  homes,  the  cheapness  and 
changing  fashions  even  in  plays,  destroy  the  life-germ  of 
these  associations.  Even  the  glorious  period  of  pocket 
treasures  is  in  danger  of  dying  out ;  the  poor  boy  and 
girl  are  left  to  the  mercy  of  ready-made  clothing.  Yet 
what  a  world  of  study  of  children's  nature  is  offered  by 
these  hidden  recesses  of  mind  and  body  !  What  sacred 
rubbish  passes  from  hand  to  hand,  from  mind  to  mind, 
on  the  waves  of  imagination,  curiosity,  veneration, 
mystery,  and  the  desire  to  have  and  to  know !  What 
ideal  beauty  does   not  a  child's   mind  find  in  a  broken 


SYMPATHETIC    EMOTIONS.  157 

handle  of  a  cup,  a  piece  of  colored  glass,  a  string,  a 
nail,  a  shell !  It  is  the  life  within  the  child  that  grows 
and  glows  in  sympathy,  knowledge,  care,  and  generosity 
through  these  mere  nothings,  toward  that  great  brother- 
hood of  universal  existence,  these  treasures  often  form- 
ing its  first  step  to  classification.  Mothers  do  not  always 
see  the  bright  side  of  this,  but  the  kindergartener,  half  a 
child  herself,  understands  it  all.  For  instance,  a  little 
boy  about  six  years  old  once  took  from  his  pocket  a 
little  envelope  not  two  inches  long.  It  had  a  stamp 
with  a  white  dove  hardly  bigger  than  a  pea.  "  That  is 
from  last  Christmas,"  he  said;  "McKay"  (his  brother, 
four  years  old)  "gave  it  to  me ;  I  kept  it  since  last 
Christmas."  It  were  well  if  all  enemies  of  pockets,  of 
hidden  treasures,  and  relic  drawers  could  have  seen  the 
expression  with  which  he  spoke  these  words.  The  tiny 
stamp  bore  a  flying  dove.  What  impressions  may  the 
child  have  gained  from  this  simple  dove  ?  All  the  bird 
stories  he  had  been  told  by  dear  mamma  and  at  the 
kindergarten  he  saw  incorporated  in  this  picture,  read- 
ing them  over  and  over  again  in  his  own  mind.  Chil- 
dren  are  poets, — poets  in  perceiving  intuitively  the 
harmonious  association  and  beauty  of  their  surround-^ 
ings.  We  should  strengthen  this  gift,  which  chisels 
silently  but  fully  the  moral  and  intellectual  evolution 
of  man  into  a  freer  and  higher  conception  of  life,  lead- 
ing him  back  to  nature,  by  early  sympathetic  simplicity 
instead  of  intellectual  negation. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

EMOTIONS   LEADING    TO    TO  WEB    OF    WILL   AND   INDI- 
VIDUAL ACTIVITIES. 

I.  Sensoric  Emotions  leading  to  the  Development  of  the  Power  of  the  Will. 
—  IT.  The  Power  of  Will  directed  and  purified  hy  early  Emotional 
Impressions.  —  III.  The  Power  of  Will  demonstrated  hy  an  Innate 
Desire  for  Individual  Activity.  —  IV.  Fried.  Froebel's  Educational 
Method  of  using  the  Child's  Innate  Desire  for  Individual  Activity. 

I.    SENSORIC   EMOTIONS  LEADING  TO   THE  DEVELOP- 
MENT  OF  THE   POWER  OF   THE   WILL. 

Before  attempting  to  direct  the  attention  of  the  mother 
educationally  to  the  successive  development  of  the  power 
of  will,  a  previous  study  of  the  muscular  movements, 
directed  and  analyzed  by  Preyer,  is  supposed  to  have 
taken  place.  Though  these  intuitive  motions  differ  in 
every  human  being,  certain  motions  which  existed  before 
birth  continue  after  birth.  They  are  impulsive  and  inde- 
pendent of  will, — anorganic  process  resulting  from  the 
center  organs  of  the  nerves  situated  in  the  spine.  They 
are  active  without  any  previous  peripheric  irritation  on 
^he  sensoric  nerve.  To  this  class  belong  the  frequent  mo- 
tions of  the  child's  legs,  arms,  and  fingers.  The  activity 
of  a  free  vvill  is  not  possible  before  the  development  of 
the  power  of  conception.  Repeated  sensations  and  com- 
parison of  emotion  are  necessary  to  discriminate  between 
comfort  and  discomfort,  before  any  distinct  preference  in 


SENSORIC   EMOTIONS.  159 

the  act  of  a  conscious  will  can  be  shown.  The  newly 
born  child  has  no  preference,  and  therefore  no  will. 
Without  experience  of  self,  without  comparison  of  emo- 
tion, it  is  unconscious  of  outer  effects.  The  will  of  man 
is  not  merely  the  product  of  knowledge  gained  by  self- 
experience,  but  by  learning  to  adjust  his  habits  and 
motions  to  general  needs.  To  judge  the  progress  in 
development  of  the  perceptive  and  executive  powers  of 
the  child  leading  to  the  evolution  of  its  will,  requires  a 
study  of  every  motion.  "I  present,"  says  Preyer,  "my 
observations  on  my  own  newly  born  son  and  those  of 
others,  on  the  motions  indicating  the  growth  of  will- 
power. It  is  impossible  to  recognize  the  will  of  the 
child  in  motions  of  mere  muscular  attraction,  such  as 
closing  of  the  eye,  or  motions  of  the  lips  and  tongue. 
But  these  become  reflex  motions  when  resulting  from 
impressions  of  light,  sound,  or  touch.  The  execution 
of  such  motions  is,  at  the  beginning,  quite  slow,  and 
though  their  quickness  gradually  increases,  they  differ 
from  those  of  the  adult.  This  may  be  attributed  to  the 
fact  that  the  connections  are  not  fully  made,  so  that  these 
reflex  motions  have  to  travel  a  roundabout  way.  Any 
sensation  strong  enough  to  produce  irritation  will  affect 
them.  Action  of  a  free  and  independent  will  does  not 
exist  before  the  development  of  the  senses  is  sufficiently 
advanced  to  distinguish  the  qualities  of  different  impres- 
sions, and  to  feel  each  impression  separately,  with  the 
power  of  localizing  them   and  comparing  one  with  the 


160  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

other,  in  order  to  recognize  difference  in  space  and  time. 
This  is  the  result  of  cause  and  effect,  and  finally  leads  to 
the  conception  and  formation  of  will  and  idea.  Without 
the  activity  of  the  senses  there  can  be  no  sufficient  con- 
centration in  form  and  idea,  for  the  power  of  will  is 
actually  inseparable  from  the  emotional  effect  on  the 
senses.  The  will  ceases  when  the  senses  are  inactive,  as  in 
deep  sleep.  This  mutual  dependence  does  not  prove  that 
the  activity  of  the  senses  includes  the  power  of  will.  On 
the  contrary,  the  numerous  impressions  transformed  into 
conceptions  are  turned  into  motoric  movements,  before  the 
childrls  capable  of  directing  its  definite  efforts ;  and  it  is 
owing  to  the  repeated  impulsive,  reflective,  and  instinctive 
sensations  on  the  center  of  the  motor  nerves,  that  finally 
a  co-ordinate  and  modified  conception  is  developed." 

II.    THE   POWER   OF    WILL  DIRECTED   AND   PURIFIED 
BY   EARLY  EMOTIONAL   IMPRESSION. 

Close  observation  has  revealed  that  the  movements 
resulting  from  free  acts  of  the  will  are  at  first  invol- 
untary,  and  lead  to  a  conception  of  facts.  In  the  child's 
first  six  months,  having  learned  a  number  of  motions, 
it  finds  that  the  number  of  muscular  contractions  of 
which  it  is  master  does  not  x  sufficiently  answer  the  ex- 
pression of  its  enlarged  and  more  complex  desires. 
Therefore  new  combinations  are  formed  for  new  asso- 
ciations ;  showing  for  the  first  time  direct  efforts  to 
execute    voluntary   motions    intellectually.     "  This   was 


THE    POWER   OF   WILL   DIRECTED   AND   PURIFIED.       161 

proved,"  says  Preyer,  ,f  in  my  child  at  four  months  old, 
when  taking  its  food  from  a  bottle,  it  held  it."  The  child 
not  only  originated  his  motion,  but  it  co-ordinated  it 
with  its  purpose.  The  important  fact,  that  "will" 
consists  in  a  reciprocal  activity  of  conception  by 
the  use  of  motions,  isolating,  combining,  repeating, 
modifying,  and  hastening  them,  explains  the  great  diffi- 
culty under  which  the  child  begins  its  experimental  ac- 
tivity ;  that  is,  the  child  has  to  teach  itself  by  ex- 
perience. Any  act  of  free  will  demands  attention,  each 
concentration  of  attention  forming  an  act  of  will.  Preyer 
says  :  "  In  the  seventh  and  eighth  weeks  I  became  con- 
vinced that  my  child  showed  attention.  But  an  inde- 
pendently directed  attention  to  an  object,  and  occupying 
itself  with  it,  did  not  occur  until  it  was  four  months  old, 
when  it  noticed  its  own  picture  in  the  looking-glass."  To 
control  and  direct  these  motoric  conceptions  at  this  early 
age  becomes  the  work  of  education.  Very  few  mothers 
follow  intelligently  this  wonderful  development,  and 
still  less  are  they  capable  of  directing  the  child's  will- 
power to  intended  exercises.  Some  mothers  have 
learned  the  necessity  of  controlling  the  earliest  habits  of 
their  children,  good  or  bad  habits  being  so  easily  planted 
at  that  age.  But  the  child  needs  more  than  this.  It 
requires  not  merely  the  subduing  of  the  will  in  obe- 
dience from  the  first,  nor  does  it  require  an  arbitrary 
direction  of  its  will,  which  would  be  the  first  step  towards 
suppressing  its  originality  and  spontaneity  of  action. 


162  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

The  natural  submission  of  the  child's  will,  and  its  blind 
faith  in  the  judgment  of  others,  are  an  apjieal.  It  shows 
its  aptitude  for  learning.  Its  perfect  obedience  at  this 
age  is  because  of  its  small  amount  of  clear  self-will, 
which  is  similar  to  the  hypnotizing  condition  of  adults. 
As  if  to  supplement  the  child's  want  of  self-will  or  its 
marvelous  powers  of  imitation,  together  with  its  intense 
interest  and  observation  of  the  manners  and  actions  of 
those  around  it,  this  power  enables  even  a  very  young 
child  to  excel  in  accurate  imitation  of  accent,  pronuncia- 
tion, and  intonation  of  many  languages.  Domestic  ani- 
mals also  show  these  imitative  capacities.  Dogs  and  cats 
acquire  the  peculiarities  of  the  different  nations  among 
whom  they  live.  Hence  the  saying  in  England,  "The 
dog  barks  as  his  master  speaks."  The  first  impressions 
make  the  most  lasting  effects  on  the  child.  Therefore, 
educational  influences  which  transmit  good  or  evil  results 
from  generation  to  generation  cannot  be  too  earnestly 
studied  by  mothers,  for  with  them  lies  the  physical,  men- 
tal, and  moral  development  of  the  child  in  the  cradle. 
The  world  begins  to  recognize  this  as  the  dawning  truth 
of  the  age. 

III.     THE    POWER    OP  WILL    DEMONSTRATED   BY   AN 
INNATE   DESIRE  FOR   INDIVIDUAL  ACTIVITY. 

The  most  superficial  observer  of  man  and  nature 
knows  that  no  living  organism,  of  even  the  lowest  order, 
is  ever  absolutely  inactive.     In  each   plant  and  animal 


THE  POWER  OF  WILL  DEMONSTRATED.       163 

form,  iii  spite  of  the  apparently  lifeless  stillness  of  rest, 
there  exists,  though  unobserved,  a  continued  activity, 
preparing  for  the  next  step  toward  perfection  or  de- 
struction. The  seemingly  dead  plant  is  preparing  the 
fresh  sap  for  new  growth.  In  spite  of  the  winter  sleep 
of  some  animals,  the  activity  of  their  organism  is  not 
annihilated,  and  their  physical  activities  return  with  the 
warmth  of  the  sun.  The  words  life  and  activity  may 
be  considered,  therefore,  as  synonymous,  as  life  does  not 
exist  without  activity.  In  plant  life  we  call  this  activity, 
whether  justly  or  not,  "vegetative  powers";  in  animal 
life,  "instinct";  a  conscious  use  of  activity  designed  to 
accomplish  a  definite  result,  by  means  of  distinct  efforts, 
wre  call  in  man,  labor.  Prof.  Preyer  refers  constantly 
to  the  labor  or  activities  of  his  own  and  other  children 
for  their  mental  and  physical  development,  by  instinc- 
tive movements.  The  opening  and  closing  of  the  hands, 
the  almost  perpetual  motion  of  arms  and  feet,  prepare 
the  strength  for  use  of  the  muscles  as  well  as  for  gain- 
ing experiences  in  space.  Preyer  tells  us  that  to  this 
end  the  instinctive  habit  of  throwing  things  in  ail  direc- 
tions observed  in  his  boy  belongs  to  all  children.  His 
child's  lack  of  knowledge  of  distances  was  shown  at  two 
years  and  a  half  old,  when  desiring  to  hand  a  piece  of 
paper  up  to  his  father,  who  was  looking  out  of  the 
second-story  window ;  this  wTas  also  shown  in  his 
continued  activity  writh  an  elastic  glove,  which  he 
>ed    as    a   toy,    studying   the    effect    of   expansion   and 


164  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

contraction,  and  when  playing  with  his  mother's  hair; 
all  these  activities  heing  experimental  and  educational 
to  the  child.  Preyer  mentions  the  considerable  time 
necessary  for  this  purpose.  How  often  must  the  child 
grasp  in  vain,  with  his  little  hand,  that  sensitive  in- 
strument of  human  development,  before  it  can  reach 
or  hold  the  desired  object.  And  this  is  because  it  has 
to  teach  itself,  by  repeated  experiences,  a  conception  of 
direction,  distance,  muscular  contractibility,  and  weight. 
Nothing  is  less  undertood  than  the  child's  instinctive 
impulse  to  handle  everything  it  sees.  If  the  opposi- 
tion to  the  satisfaction  of  this  instinct  was  based  upon 
the  fear  of  leading  the  child  too  early  to  an  intellectual 
development,  scientific  facts  would  need  to  be  con- 
sulted ;  but  unfortunately  the  child  falls  a  victim  to 
this  opposition  of  one  of  the  most  important  factors 
of  human  self-development,  the  order  of  which  is, 
according  to  Preyer  :  — 

First.  Activity  of  the  senses,  awakening  emotional 
feelings. 

Second.  Activity  of  the  emotional  feelings,  connecting 
and  disconnecting  impressions. 

Third.  Activity  in  comparing  impressions  in  space 
and  time,  abstracting  individual  feelings  and  actions. 

Fourth.  Activity  in  controlling  individual  feelings 
and  actions,  by  force  of  will  and  reason. 

Fifth.  Activity  in  developing  consciousness  of  self- 
hood. 


FRfED.    FROEBEL'S   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD.  165 


IV.  FRIED.  FROEBEL'S  EDUCATIONAL  METHOD  OF 
USING-  THE  CHILD'S  INNATE  DESIRE  FOR 
INDIVIDUAL  ACTIVITY. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  the  conformity  which 
exists  between  the  previously  cited  psycho-physiological 
conception  of  the  innate  activities  of  the  child,  by 
Preyer,  with  the  philosophical  and  educational  concep- 
tion demonstrated  by  Froebel's  developing  principles. 
To  him  we  owe  the  demand  to  connect  these  instinctive 
activities  with  the  earliest  education  of  the  child,  lead- 
ing it  gradually  and  methodically  from  unconscious  to 
conscious  play,  and  from  unconscious  to  conscious  labor, 
demonstrating  the  so-called  "new  education"  with  its 
claim  "through  work  to  work,"  and  knowing  by  doing. 
Admitting  that  the  child's  activities,  as  revealed  by  its 
nature,  were  received  in  all  ages  with  the  instinctive 
genius  of  mother's  love  and  mother's  care,  ho  made 
the  dealing  of  the  mothers  with  their  babies  a  practi- 
cal study.  Not  among  conventional  women,  but  among 
the  most  natural,  simple,  loving  mothers  in  the  forest 
of  Thuringia.  Here  Froebel  found  ample  material  to 
furnish  ideas  for  his  mother  and  nursery  songs,  his  ball 
and  round  games. 

Prof.  Hermann  Poesche,  one  of  his  disciples  and  a 
distinguished  trainer  of  kindergarteners  at  Berlin,  wrote 
a  very  interesting  essay  on  the  antiquity  of  these  songs. 
The    songs    and   finger   plays   prove    the    possibility   of 


166  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

early  communication  and  of  impressing  the  child  edu- 
cationally with  its  surroundings,  instilling  meaning  by 
sounds  and  motions,  when  words  are  not  understood, 
thereby  laying  the  foundation  of  a  lasting  play  activity. 
These  play  activities  Froebel  classes  as  follows :  first, 
the  innate  love  of  the  beautiful ;  second,  the  innate  love 
of  play ;  third,  innate  love  of  music ;  fourth,  innate 
love  of  society ;  fifth,  innate  love  of  forming  and  shap- 
ing ;  sixth,  innate  love  of  building  and  constructing ; 
seventh,  innate  love  of  cultivating  the  ground ;  eighth, 
the  love  of  the  spiritual.  It  is  not  our  purpose  to  refer 
in  detail  to  the  means  he  proposes  for  gratifying  this 
love  by  leading  the  child  to  occupy  itself  with  the  ob- 
jects it  naturally  craves.  His  aims  are  to  give  the  op- 
portunity to  the  child  to  express  its  higher  spiritual 
qualities  in  its  play  activities,  at  an  age  when  the  nature 
of  the  child  can  in  no  other  way  be  brought  to  light 
and  knowledge,  and  in  no  other  way  controlled  and 
directed.  Dr.  Tiregoff  says:  "En  prennant  soin  du 
berceau  de  Vhomme  en  instituant  les  jeux  de  son  enfant,  en 
lui  apprenant  appeler  les  premieres  paroles  les  femmes 
deviennent  les  architectes  principeaux  de  la  socieie,  dont 
la  pierre  anguliere  est  pose  par  leurs  mains."  In  taking 
care  of  the  cradle  of  mankind,  adjusting  the  child's  plays 
to  the  first  words  it  utters,  makes  women  to  be  the 
architects  of  the  age  by  laying  the  corner-stone  to  the 
social  structure.  The  plasticity  and  elasticity  of  the. 
psycho-nervous  organization  of  the  child  makes  its  cul- 


FRIED.    FEOEBEL'S   EDUCATIONAL   METHOD.  167 

ture  and  life  perfection  inseparable  from  its  earliest 
conception  and  direction ;  a  plasticity  shown  clearly  in 
the  learning  and  use  of  one  or  more  languages,  besides 
the  exact  meaning  of  words  and  their  connection  with 
persons  and  objects,  —  a  capacity  which  considerably 
diminishes    in  later  years. 

This  educational  phenomenon  needs  grave  consider- 
ation, in  order  that  we  may  be  just  to  the  individual,  and 
to  mankind  at  large.  In  this  sense,  the  education  of 
the  human  race  rests  on  the  woman.  But  as  long  as 
woman  stands  outside  the  platform  of  logic,  and  inde- 
pendence of  thought;  as  long  as  she  remains  indiffer- 
ent to  the  great  questions  of  the  time,  that  is,  the  wel- 
fare and  happiness  of  mankind,  of  which  she  and  her 
children  are  but  a  part,  both  will  remain  narrow,  selfish, 
and  indifferent  toward  the  higher  religion  of  the  one 
great  brotherhood,  "in  the  elevation  of  the  human  race." 

To  Froebel  not  a  moment  of  child's  play  activities  is 
insignificant ;  he  requires  them  to  be  used  methodically 
to  develop  the  power  of  will,  emotions,  and  intellect, 
and  this  at  an  age  when  neither  words  nor  prohibition 
can  be  serviceable.  When  Preyer  said  to  his  child, 
"You  are  not  hungry,"  and  it  laid  down  its  biscuit, 
.  his  commanding:  wTords  controlled  its  will.  This  shows 
that   its   will-power   was   still   feeble   and   flexible,    and 

»  roved  its  aptitude  for  direction. 
The  practice  for  the  mother  consists  not  so   much  in 
using  just  such  means,  but  in  a  systematically  arranged 


168  CONSCIOUS   MOTHEEHOOD. 

method  of  principles  in  accordance  with  the  nature  of 
the  child  and  its  educational  environments.  This  is  not 
so  difficult  if  both  parents  devote  themselves  to  it  with 
conscientiousness,  being  careful  not  to  do  one  thing  and 
say  another,  or  to  say  one  thing  to-day  and  contradict 
it  the  next  day.  No  other  result  but  damage  to  the 
will  and  character  of  the  child  can  be  expected,  if 
it  is  left  to  ignorant,  unprincipled,  and  inconsiderate 
nurses,  or  if  left  to  parents  who  have  neither  conception 
of,  nor  preparation  for,  their  high  office.  The  main 
point  of  educating  the  will  lies  in  the  living  of  the 
parents  with  their  children.  "  Let  us  live  with  our 
children,"  is  FroebePs  motto,  expressing  the  idea  that 
even  the  living  for  the  children  is  insufficient.  We 
should  live  with  them,  laying  problems  in  their  way  to 
be  solved,  requiring  the  creation  of  will,  as  well  as  the 
suppression  of  the  will,  of  thoughtful ness,  of  self-denial, 
kindness,  justice,  steadiness,  making  our  own  actions 
illuminated  images  of  perfection,  which  the  child  is  sure 
to  feel.  The  elements  of  repressive  movements  of  which 
Preyer  speaks  are  of  great  educational  importance,  in 
connection  with  the  auxiliary  virtues  of  attention,  con- 
trol of  will,  cleanliness,  order,  truth,  obedience,  and 
reason.  A  neglect  of  this  may  become  injurious  to  the 
whole  character,  as  want  of  insight  and  good-will  may 
lead  to  shiftless,  capricious  actions. 

Modern   pedagogues  attempt   to  secure    moral    educa- 
tion by  manual  education,  by  studying  the  innate  play 


FRIED.    FROEBEL'S    EDUCATIONAL   METHOD.  169 

activities  which  need  to  be  controlled  morally  in  the 
cradle.  The  productivity  of  the  baby  harmonizes  with 
its  growing  power  of  reason,  imagination,  emotion,  will, 
and  bodily  strength.  Educators  have  to  depend  on  the 
amount  and  direction  of  this  strength.  Meanwhile  the 
restless,  unsteady  child  has  to  be  brought  in  contact  with 
but  a  few  objects,  prompting  it  by  a  careful  insight  and 
direction  to  gain  the  habit  of  steadiness.  The  slow, 
lifeless  child  needs  to  be  animated  and  urged.  Froebel's 
occupations  are  adapted  to  the  average  child's  tempera- 
ment, and  to  a  slow  gradual  unfolding.  Simple  as  they 
are,  they  form  a  unity,  to  reach  successively  the  wider 
plains  of  individual  conception  and  creative  activities. 
All  higher  pleasures  of  existence  rest  on  and  result 
from  these  inborn  creative  forces.  The  child  conceives 
them  more  easily  and  clearly  than  in  after  life.  To 
gratify  the  creative  forces  each  step  forward  follows  logi- 
cally the  last  step  taken,  reaching  out  for  perfection  in 
each  and  all.  The  terminal  point,  according  to  Froebel,  is 
directed  to  play  activities.  Individual  activity  connects 
le  very  young  child  with  the  outward  world.  Its 
experience  consists  in  controlling  and  being  controlled. 
These  lead  the  child  into  the  arena  of  the  cultivation 
of  social  virtues.  The  child  delights  to  be  useful.  Its 
>wn  activity  becomes  its  best  mentor.  Words  are  not 
needed  ;  self-experience  and  direction  suffice.  The  child 
longs  for  success.  Every  success  strengthens  its  powers, 
every  failure  weakens  them.     Education  directs  the  will 


170  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

and  action  into  the  success  of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and 
the  good.  What  our  children  need  is  animation.  Inborn 
energies  to  action  and  to  understand  things  die  for  want 
of  animation.  Here  rich  and  poor  stand  on  the  same 
footing.  The  writer's  experience  in  this  respect  forms 
one  of  her  life's  griefs.  As  the  instinctiveness  of  the  soul 
forces  rests  on  unknown  spiritual  strength,  so  the  instinc- 
tive creative  forces,  even  in  the  child  three  years  old,  rest 
on  the  unknown  relation  of  soul  to  soul ;  and  no  one 
feels  this  more  keenly  than  the  child. 

V.  "BABY'S  DELIGHT"  BALL  PLAYS,  ACCORDING  TO 
FRIED.  FROEBEL,  PARTLY  ARRANGED  BY  EMMA 
MARWEDEL. 

The  play  with  the  ball  was  known  among  the  an- 
cients, where  it  served  through  all  stages  of  life  for 
pleasurable  recreation  and  gymnastic  exercises.  To 
them,  physical  education  was  an  auxiliary  science  to 
poetry,  music,  history,  and  oratory.  The  ball  used  for 
this  purpose  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  baby  to 
those  of  the  poet,  the  artist,  and  the  philosopher.  The 
Teutons  made  ball  plays  national,  and  their  ball  houses, 
built  expressly  for  the  purpose,  were  found  all  over 
Germany ;  until,  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
billiards  supplanted  the  other  more  manly  sports.  Ball 
plays  have  been  used  in  various  forms  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  last  century,  and  are  uniting  the  two  sexes 
to-day  in  natural  and  healthy  exercise.     Dancing  parties 


171 


seem  to  have  outgrown  our  realistic  sense  of  amuse- 
ment, and  make  room  for  a  new  genius  in  play,  giving 
the  two  sexes  natural  pleasures  in  the  open  air  and 
broad  daylight,  in  which  the  beautiful  Greek  ball  fig- 
ures in  the  front  rank.  The  introduction  of  the  ball, 
the  typical  form  of  life  and  motion,  as  the  first  educa- 
tional toy  of  the  baby  in  the  cradle,  is  of  recent  date, 
and  is  due  to  our  great  master,  Froebel.  Its  simplicity 
of  form  and  attractiveness  of  color  and  motion  are  the 
best  means  of  awakening  early  attention.  But  the  still 
greater  importance  of  the  ball  plays  consists  in  the 
mental  unity  of  love  and  joy  developed  through  these 
childlike  play  communications  between  mother  and 
child.  Day  by  day,  step  by  step,  she  perceives  the 
growing  intellectual  powers  under  her  affectionate  plays, 
doubting  if  it  be  her  love,  her  play,  or  the  ball  that 
affects  her  darling  most.  As  for  the  baby,  it  lies  in  its 
very  nature  to  use  the  ball  like  any  young  animal ;  to 
roll  it,  to  toss  it,  to  jump  after  it,  finding  in  it  the 
magic  attraction  of  motion  and  emotion,  life  in  life. 

The  seven  cards  contain  thirty  illustrations  and  ex- 
ercises for  earliest  ball  plays  with  the  baby,  called 
Baby's  Delights.  They  are  not  lessons,  but  soulful 
and  mirthful  plays  for  the  home  circle,  needing  the 
sweetest  voice,  the  best  speaker,  and  the  merriest 
laughter,  while  the  cards  explain  themselves.  The  fol- 
lowing may  serve  as  hints :  first,  keep  perfectly 
rhythmical    measure    in    all    motions,     in    speaking    and 


172  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

singing.  Second,  while  good  singing  is  essential,  good 
speaking  is  of  almost  greater  importance.  The  writer, 
being  amazed  at  the  singsong  manner  of  reading  in 
her  elementary  department,  gave  much  thought  and 
effort  to  find  the  cause  of  this  bad  habit,  even  among 
children  carefully  watched  and  directed.  Suddenly  it 
was  made  clear ;  the  cause  was  Mother  Goose's  rhymes, 
which,  putting  the  accent  mechanically  on  the  last  sylla- 
ble, created  a  vicious  elocution,  a  habit  transmitted  from 
one  generation  to  another.  Nothing  inspires  a  child 
(even  animals  feel  the  same  effect)  more  than  the  modu- 
lation of  the  voice,  —  the  soul  of  the  words.  This  no 
one  is  more  capable  of  perceiving  than  the  child ;  and 
if  for  nothing  else,  each  mother  should  be  prepared 
to  be  a  soul  elocutionist  rather  than  an  art  elocutionist, 
speaking,  singing,  and  asking  with  facial  expression.  If 
you  cannot  perceive  the  electric  flashes  passing  between 
your  giving  and  the  child's  taking,  your  efforts  are  lost. 
Never  demand  the  attention  of  the  playing  child  longer 
than  it  is  willing  to  give  it. 

Play  depends  on  creative  dispositions  and  impulses, 
which  are  free  born,  never  forced.  The  rhymes  accom- 
panying the  illustrations  are  collected  from  many  sources, 
wherever  they  were  found,  without  taking  time  to  ask 
permission  to  print  them.  Some  very  graceful  little 
gems  are  original  or  translated  by  Mary  G.  Campbell ; 
some  were  boldly  transferred  from  Miss  Peabody's  little 
book   of  ball   plays ;   while   the   music   comes   from  the 


173 


distinguished  composer,  H.  B.  Pasmore,  San  Francisco, 
and  Dr.  N.  Batchelder.  In  order  to  find  a  normal 
type  to  answer  a  methodical  unfolding  of  the  human 
being,  and  to  satisfy  the  natural  desire  to  play  with  and 
to  enjoy  colors  and  motions,  Froebel,  the  pedagogue, 
introduced  as  first  toy  gifts  the  soft-colored  worsted 
ball,  psychology  stating  that  with  its  first  entrance 
into  life  each  child  is  self-experimentally  active  through 
its  senses,  and  that,  after  a  lapse  of  a  few  months,  it 
becomes  attracted  by  color  and  form,  supplemented  by 
a  sensation  through  which  a  conception  of  position  and 
direction  is  early  awakened.  But  with  that  great  step 
forward  in  mental  development,  by  comprehending  itself 
us  a  whole  in  parts,  and  parts  subjected  to  a  whole, 
the  child  experiences  connection  and  disconnection,  and 
relative  conditions,  gaining  successively  the  idea  of  space, 
shape,  and  time,  developed  by  experience  in  its  own  ex- 
istence. Recognizing  itself  as  a  whole,  the  child  desires 
a  whole  ;  steadily  refusing  a  part  of  the  whole. 

The  ball,  in  the  order  of  its  simplicity  in  form,  its 
attractiveness  and  connection  with  all  forms,  is  related 
philosophically,  symbolically,  analytically,  and  typically, 
as  the  nucleus  (egg-shaped)  with  all  life.  Therefore 
Froebel  selected  the  soft  worsted  ball,  presenting  in 
its  simplicity  the  greatest  manifoldness,  as  a  funda- 
mental basis,  from  which  the  child  is  led  by  right 
seeing,  right  feeling  (handling),  and  right  hearing,  to 
experience  an  extensive  series  of  sensuous  impressions. 


174  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

First,  relating  to  the  shape  of  the  ball ;  fruit,  vegeta- 
bles, flowers,  seeds,  leaves,  eggs.  Second,  relating  to 
the  motion  of  the  ball,  indicating  position  and  direction  ; 
up,  down,  right,  left,  middle,  front,  back,  over,  under, 
high,  low,  here,  there,  near,  far,  behind,  between,  com- 
ing, going,  rolling,  jumping,  turning,  swinging,  throwing, 
catching,  hopping,  creeping,  stopping,  running,  knock- 
ing loudly  and  knocking  softly.  Third,  relating  to  the 
color,  surface,  size,  and  iveight  of  the  ball ;  rough,  rough- 
est, smoothest,  large,  smaller,  smallest,  heavy,  light, 
lightest,  with  shades  of  color.  To  accomplish  this, 
Froebel  urges  the  mother  to  provide  herself  with  six 
balls.  With  four  or  six  balls  the  mother  begins  her 
lovely  task.  Hanging  the  red  ball,  on  account  of  its 
brightness,  over  the  cradle  of  her  child,  she  directs 
his  attention  to  it,  till  he  follows  it  with  his  eyes,  by 
swinging  the  ball  forward  and  backward,  keeping  per- 
fect time  and  giving  her  explanation  either  in  rhyme 
or  prose.  What  a  family  delight  will  be  the  higher  con- 
ception of  these  efforts  by  proving  the  normal  condition 
of  baby's  senses,  in  hearing,  seeing,  touching !  The  hap- 
pier and  livelier  the  manner  is  in  which  the  sympa- 
thetic feelings  of  the  baby  are  aroused,  the  more  lasting 
will  be  the  impressions  it  receives.  See,  it  begins  to 
stretch  its  hands,  to  listen  to  the  words  and  tunes,  follow- 
ing the  motion  of  the  ball,  proving  that  it  has  learned  to 
connect  facts  with  ideas.  Recognizing  in  the  ball,  further- 
more, the  nucleus  of  all  rounded  forms  in  nature,  I  have 


175 


arranged  a  series  of  ball-like  forms  to  be  placed  succes- 
sively in  the  hands  of  the  baby,  to  direct  the  perceptive 
faculties  to  the  existing  similarities  and  dissimilarities, 
giving  the  child  the  necessary  opportunity  for  a  playful 
and  joyful  self-education  by  occupation  with  the  follow- 
ing objects:  1.  A  number  of  solid  balls,  differing  in 
color,  size,  and  material,  of  which  not  one  should  be 
smaller  than  the  baby's  mouth.  (Patented  Color  Ball 
Play,  by  E.  Marwedel.)  2.  A  number  of  solid 
balls  divided  into  zones,  differing  in  color,  size,  and 
material,  to  be  rolled  and  laid  in  figures.  3.  A 
number  of  solid  balls,  divided  into  rings,  differing  in 
color,  size,  and  material,  to  be  strung  on  a  cord,  and 
laid  in  figures,  awakening  the  sense  of  order  and 
beauty.  These  rings  should  be  so  arranged  on  a  long 
string,  which  the  child,  or  those  who  play  with  the 
child,  can  join  or  separate.  (Patented  by  E.  Mar- 
wedel.) 4.  A  number  of  ball-like  forms,  as  found  in 
nature,  consisting  of  apples,  peaches,  pears,  flowers, 
and  vegetables,  made  of  rubber,  porcelain,  papier-mache, 
or  any  other  appropriate  material,  to  serve  the  child's 
amusement  and  self-occupation,  developing  its  faculties 
of  perception  and  comparison.  This  should  be  aided 
playfully  by  the  adults,  without  depriving  the  child  of 
gaining  for  himself  independently  a  knowledge  of  cause 
and  effect,  —  an  educational  point  of  great  importance, 
even  at  so  early  an  age. 


176  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 


VI.    FROEBEL'S   MOTHER   AND    COOING   SONGS. 

In  man,  immediately  after  birth,  we  perceive  much 
less  extensive  powers  associated  with  co-ordinate  move- 
ments of  the  muscles  than  in  animals.  On  account  of 
their  greater  multiplicity  in  man,  they  need  a  longer 
period  of  gradual,  in  an  educational  sense  methodical 
development ;  making  clear  the  impossibility  of  perfect- 
ing such  a  complicated  and  associated  mechanism  before 
birth.  The  capacities  of  man  lie  dormant,  depending 
upon  his  experience  and  a  stimulant  from  without  to 
make  him  aware  of  what  he  is  able  to  be  and  to  do.  The 
human  child  has  to  learn.  Changing  but  in  form,  the 
excellence  of  animal  instincts  lessens  in  the  same  degree 
as  general  intellectual  capacity  broadens,  as  is  observed 
in  the  savage  and  the  domesticated  animal.  The  former 
loses  the  keenness  of  his  instinctive  powers  under  the 
shelter  of  civilization,  in  the  same  proportion  as  he  gains 
the  capacity  of  acquiring  general  culture. 

While  the  child  of  civilized  races  progresses  slowly 
in  its  mental  and  physical  growth  before  completing  its 
maturity,  it  has  to  undergo  many  changes  of  habits  and 
thoughts  of  life. 

Owing  to  the  flexibility  of  his  limbs,  any  impression  on 
the  still  growing  man  remains,  influencing  the  whole 
organism  with  an  everlasting  stamp  from  the  very  earli- 
est period  of  life.  The  human  tendency  to  form  habits 
by  participating  in  and  imitating  the  actions  of  others, 


froebel's  mother  and  cooing  songs.  177 

must  be  considered  the  prime  mover  in  the  evolutional, 
physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  development  of  the 
child.  They  do  not  consist  in  positively  acting  forces, 
example  and  surroundings  being  sufficient;  and  in  this 
sense  is  to  be  understood  Froebel's  demand  to  com- 
pare the  child  with  the  plant,  and  its  slow,  gradual 
development,  —  to  be  placed  in  a  child's  garden. 

In  this  child's  garden,  Froebel  says  to  the  child  : 
"  Grow !  grow  in  full  harmony  with  thyself  and  thy 
surroundings.  Grow  with  all  the  vigor  of  which  thy 
nature  is  capable.  Grow  to  be  thy  full  self,  and  nothing 
else  than  thyself.  Make  thyself,  morally,  intellectually, 
and  physically." 

To  whom  did  Froebel  intrust  the  care  of  this  growth  ? 
To  whom  did  he  look  forward  to  prepare  and  fertilize  the 
ground?  It  was  the  mother!  His  heart  was  with  the 
mother,  in  whom  he  recognized  the  sole  motor  of  all 
higher  principles  and  devotional  virtues.  His  words  are 
no  more  heard,  but  the  most  eloquent  interpreter  of  his 
thoughts  and  aims  lingers  still  among  us  with  that 
teuacity  of  will  which  helps  eminent  minds  in  the  frail- 

t  bodies. 

A  clear  knowledge  concerning  the  bodily  care  and  de- 

Ivelopment  of  the  human  mind  in  the  child  is  found  only 
in  specially  cultivated  mothers,  while,  without  even  a 
conception  of  its  need,  an  instinctive  love  and  traditional 
fancy  are  thought  sufficient. 

Froebel  attempts  to  furnish  the  mother  with  the  knowl- 


I 


178  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

edge  to  which  she  is  entitled  by  the  laws  of  God  and  her 
nature,  predicting  enthusiastically  that  "the  mother," 
once  becoming  conscious  of  her  duties,  will  lead  in  the 
highest  of  all  sciences,  namely,  "that  of  man." 

Froebel's  nursery  songs,  consisting  of  a  series  of  poems, 
point  first  to  the  feeling  of  the  mother  herself  beholding 
her  infant.  They  may  be  called  imperfect  as  poems, 
even  in  the  original  German,  the  words  not  being  equal  to 
the  superiority  of  the  ideas,  — a  fact  necessarily  affecting 
the  American  translation.  But  in  both  cases  only  their 
outer  form,  is  injured.  Froebel  requests  the  mother  to 
receive  the  child  as  a  special  gift  of  God  in  religious 
devotion  as  a  new,  valuable  light  to  human  society ;  as 
a  new  germ  of  a  responsible  human  mind,  to  be  recog- 
nized from  its  first  hour  in  its  higher  rights  of  the  soul, 
to  bestow  equal  share  of  spiritual  influence  on  her  new- 
born immortal  child,  as  she  offers  physical  care  to  its 
body. 

Most  young  mothers  play  with  their  children  as  with 
their  dolls.  Any  childish  remark  serves  as  amusement, 
ignoring  any  connection  with  education.  Froebel  says  it 
is  impossible  to  correct  in  the  second  year  the  wrong- 
doings of  the  first  year,  thereby  heaping  the  shortcom- 
ings of  one  year  on  those  of  the  next.  Mothers  will  say, 
"  As  soon  as  my  child  understands  what  I  say,  I  give  my 
commands  and  forbiddings,  teaching  it  to  control  its  will 
and  to  do  right."  What  a  mistake  !  When  the  child  un- 
derstands these  words ?  the  most  important  time  has  been 


froebel's  mother  and  cooing  songs.  179 

lost.  If  good  habits  and  inclinations,  obedience,  order, 
cleanliness,  kindness,  and  other  virtues  have  not  been 
rooted  in  the  first  year,  it  will  be  most  difficult  to  uproot 
bad  habits  and  to  implant  new  ones.  Froebel  attempts 
to  convince  mothers  that  the  highest  self-sacrificing  love, 
without  the  knowledge  of  these  shortcomings,  may  lead 
the  child  to  crimes  and  sin. 

Science  demonstrates  that  almost  with  life  itself  the 
child  discriminates  between  pleasure  and  the  opposite. 
The  nursery  songs  are  intended  to  awaken  the  higher 
emotional  feelings  which  grow  from  the.  sensational 
impressions  the  child  experiences  from  its  surround- 
ings. Numberless  children  remain  dull,  indifferent,  and 
mentally  asleep,  because  no  one  arouses  their  sympa- 
thy and  emotional  feelings.  Therefore,  no  elderly  nurse, 
who  is  unable  to  play  with  the  child,  nor  any  untrained 
and  uncultivated  young  girl,  who  is  often  rough  and 
silly,  should  have  the  care  of  its  mind  and  body. 
Nurses  should  be  trained  in  schools  for  nurses,  accord- 
ing to  Froebel's  principles. 

The  first  natural  relation  of  the  child  is  with  its 
mother.  Nothing  develops  this  higher  union  more 
strongly  than  motherly  bodily  and  mental  care.  "It 
is  too  stupid ! "  said  a  mother  who  only  took  her  child 
occasionally  from  the  arms  of  the  nurse. 

It  is  no  less  important  how  the  baby  is  placed  in 
the  cradle  at  night,  and  who  puts  it  to  sleep.  A  sweet, 
short  prayer  by   the   mother,  a  soft,   melodious  morn- 

^>v  0»  THE     *^f? 


180  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

ing  song  before  the  child  leaves  the  cradle,  will  affect 
a  child  in  opposition  to  the  thoughtless  harshness  of  the 
business  spirit  of  the  day. 

The  first  vague  impressions  made  on  the  senses  of  the 
child  are  perceived  little  by  little.  By  many  repetitions 
they  are  transmitted  into  a  conception,  from  which  and 
by  which  it  gains  at  last  an  individual  emotional  feeling. 

This  early  visible  process  explains  the  most  wonderful 
and  mysterious  relation  between  mother  and  child,  and 
it  is  a  great  error  to  believe  that  the  bodily  development 
of  the  child  demands  an  undisturbed  monotony  of  its 
mental  condition.  On  the  contrary,  no  period  of  life 
connects  body  and  mind  more  closely  than  the  earliest 
one.  Therefore,  physical  and  mental  exercise  have  to 
keep  equal  steps ;  plenty  of  food,  plenty  of  sleep,  with 
much-considered  simple  excitement.  The  nursery  songs 
offer  this  by  muscular  exercises,  through  play  of  the 
limbs,  united  with  mental  nourishment  by  tunes  awaken- 
ing emotional  feelings.  The  activities  of  life  and  joy 
thus  awakened  improve  health ;  even  the  digestive  func- 
tions developing  that  power  of  resistance  in  sickness  so 
often  missed,  the  absence  of  which  becomes  fatal  in 
fat,  lifeless  babies. 

Activity  is  predestined  for  man.  He  is  born  with  cer- 
tain organs  to  support  his  free  creative  powers  for  labor. 
The  first  development  of  these  organs  is  the  prerequi- 
site of  the  following  activities,  reached  by  muscular 
exercises,  a  truth  manifested  by  nature  through  the  con- 


froebel's  mother  and  cooing  songs.  181 

stant  movements  of  the  hands  and  feet  of  the  child, 
accompanied  by  its  pleasure.  To  facilitate  this  natural 
desire,  a  mattress  has  been  lately  invented,  giving  the 
child  free  scope  of  exercises ;  likewise  a  softly  lined 
basket,  by  a  physician,  which  promotes  free  position  and 
motion,  and  in  which  the  child  is  to  be  carried  by  hand, 
thus  preventing  carrying  on  the  arms,  and  in  the  brain- 
shaking  carriages.  Gymnastic  exercises  are  no  longer 
questioned  as  to  the  quickening  of  the  circulation  of 
blood,  and  they  have  still  higher  value  in  the  case  of  the 
body.  Besides,  by  the  early  use  of  the  limbs  the  child 
gains  that  independence  of  will  which,  by  free  activity, 
develops  energy  toward  certain  aims  necessary  to  form 
"force  of  character,"  without  which  no  higher  moral 
power  exists. 

The  moral  development  at  such  early  period  of  life 
depends  entirely  on  impressions  made  on  the  senses,  the 
most  important  being  that  of  touch.  The  simple  move- 
ment of  kicking  may  be  turned  into  a  measured  gymnas- 
tic exercise,  accompanied  by  song  imitating  the  stamping 
of  horses'  feet,  or  the  clattering  of  wheels  in  a  mill. 
The  influence  of  music  has  been  tried  successfully  on 
babies  not  older  than  two  months.  With  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  kindergarten,  the  finger  plays  concerning  the 
family  circle  are  spread  almost  around  the  globe,  but 
they  should  not  be  less  "a  mother's  song."  It  was  a 
charming  idea  of  Froebel  to  point  to  the  family  and  the 
lovinsr  relation  of  each  to  the  other. 


182  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

A  great  part  of  Froebel's  exercises  are  for  the  earliest 
development  of  the  hand  as  the  most  important  organ 
of  human  labor,  and  as  furnishing  the  best  means  for  a 
gradual  growth  of  the  brain,  which  develops  very  slowly 
into  its  normal  condition.  Furthermore,  as  all  human 
development  starts  from  the  labor  of  the  hand  for  human 
comfort  and  art,  it  is  evident  that  manual  ability  must  not 
be  neglected  at  the  earliest  part  of  life  to  prepare  the 
skillful  and  trained  hand,  so  important  to  the  laboring 
classes. 

The  difference  between  children  under  different  men- 
tal and  physical  treatment  has  proved  clearly  how  much 
is  neglected.  Good  or  bad  habits  instilled  in  the  first 
year  of  the  life  of  a  child  will  last  forever.  Little 
children  still  carried  in  the  arms  of  the  mothers  have 
shown  themselves  very  unhappy  if  their  clothes  were 
not  placed  and  folded  "just  right."  This  may  seem 
to  be  an  insignificant  matter  in  education,  but  it  is 
not. 

The  baby's  attention  must  be  directed  to  the  right 
actions  of  its  older  sister  and  brother ;  let  simple  impres- 
sions be  repeated,  supplementing  and  strengthening  them 
by  the  expression  of  your  features,  giving  approval  and 
animating  language  to  all  good  deeds  of  the  young  mind. 
The  recognition  of  gestures  and  manners,  a  kind  or  un- 
kind face,  is  astonishingly  great  and  well  defined  in 
babies,  and  it  has  been  known  that  very  young  children 
copied  all  the  peculiarities  of  their  nurses. 


froebel's  mother  and  cooing  songs.  183 


Moral  education  depends  mostly  on  the  efforts  to 
overcome  innate  egotism  with  the  care  and  love  for 
others.  Far  from  destroying  the  self-will,  without 
which  no  self-esteem  exists,  it  is  necessary  to  counter- 
act in  the  first  months  that  selfishness  which  leaves  no 
place  for  others.  It  is  very  true,  a  child  can  express 
only  its  oion  needs,  as  it  feels  only  for  itself.  It  knows 
nothing  outside  of  itself,  but  the  pleasure  to  acquire 
what  suits  or  pleases  its  senses.  This  is  shown  in  its 
continued  graspings  after  anything  in  its  reach.  This 
must  not  be*"  identified  with  selfishness.  It  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  develop  its  self-will.  Before  man  has  any- 
thing he  can  call  his  own,  he  can  neither  be  active  nor 
use  his  influence  over  others.  He  can  hardly  show  his 
love  by  tokens  and  actions.  As  soon  as  a  child  is  able 
to  reach  what  it  desires,  and  hold  it,  it  should  be  led  to 
return  it  or  to  give  it  to  its  sister  or  brother ;  in  short, 
every  possibility  should  be  used  educationally  to  dimin- 
ish selfishness.  To  this  end,  give  the  child  very  early 
opportunity  to  fulfil  certain  obligations. 

Froebel's  finger  plays  and  songs  serve,  however,  to 
further  this  end.  The  child,  small  as  it  may  be,  is  sure 
of  the  use  of  its  hands  for  itself  and  for  others.  It  takes 
care  of  the  ground,  of  plants  and  a  garden.  Froebel  de- 
mands flower-pots  for  every  nursery.  The  mother,  in 
watering  the  flowers,  he  says,  with  the  baby  in  her  arms, 
allowing  it  to  place  its  little  hand  on  the  watering-pot, 
singing  afterward  a  song  from  the  nursery  book,  forming 


184  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

the  watering-pot  with  the  fingers  and  flowers  and  buds, 
and  the  older  children  representing  the  gate  of  the 
garden,  does  a  great  deal,  and  even  the  smallest  child 
should  be  allowed  to  have  the  care  of  one  or  more  pet 
animals,  the  feeding  being  always  a  great  delight  to  small 
children. 

The  close  relation  to  nature,  of  which  the  child  is  un- 
conscious, is  demonstrated  by  the  great  affection  the  child 
shows  for  animals.  This  affection,  used  and  cultivated, 
has  to  be  turned  into  love  and  kindness  to  its  own  kind. 
Shape,  color,  motion,  in  short,  all  characteristics  of  differ- 
ent material,  the  child  will  learn  to  understand  by  the  com- 
parison of  animal  and  plant  life,  as  shown  in  the  Froebel 
nursery  songs,  "The  Barn-Yard"  and  "The  Garden  Gate." 
The  peculiar  sounds  of  different  animals,  so  easily  and 
joyfully  imitated  by  the  small  child,  should  be  used  in  its 
first  attempts  to  speak.  "Bow-wow"  of  the  dog,  "moo- 
moo  "  of  the  cow,  the  croak  of  the  frog,  the  crow  of  the 
rooster,  blend  or  present  a  number  of  sounds  of  foreign 
languages. 

Even  the  highest  of  all  feelings  —  the  religious  feeling 
—  can  be  united  with  the  first  observation  of  nature  — the 
works  of  God.  Froebel  arranged  the  finger  play,  "the 
bird's  nest,"  for  this  purpose.  It  symbolizes  the  pro- 
vision for  those  God  created  ;  the  care  of  the  bird  parents 
indicating  the  care  and  love  of  God  for  all,  man  and  ani- 
mals. Without  the  actual  making  of  the  nest,  with  its 
little  fingers,  the  child  would  have  no  conception  of  the 


froebel's  mother  and  cooing  songs.  185 


abstract  meaning.  Not  the  words,  but  the  visible  impres- 
sions of  the  birds'  nests,  the  tune  of  the  music,  the  en- 
lightened face,  the  compassionate  delicacy  of  the  mother's 
voice,  work  educationally  in  elevating  the  small  child. 
Nothing  leads  the  child  nearer  to  God  than  the  visible 
impressions  of  creation  on  the  senses,  —  a  reason  why 
children  should  be  for  the  first  months  as  much  as  pos- 
sible in  the  open  air,  placed  under  the  influences  of  the 
beauty  and  harmony  of  nature.  A  baby  awakening  in 
the  fresh  air,  amidst  trees,  lawns,  and  birds  and  beauti- 
fully colored  flowers  (like  the  eminent  botanist,  Lin- 
naeus), will  be  very  differently  developed  from  another 
brought  up  in-doors,  not  leaving  silent,  gloomy  rooms, 
where  there  could  be  no  emotional  impressions  on  the 
senses. 

The  Mother's  Nursery  and  Cooing  Songs  provide : 
1.  For  the  gymnastic  of  the  limbs;  2.  For  the  recog- 
nition of  the  beauty  and  usefulness  of  nature ;  3.  For 
family  and  social  relations,  by  exercises  of  the  hand, 
finger,  leg,  foot,  and  senses,  supplemented  by  songs  and 
music,  and  should  be  in  the  hands  of  each  mother. 

How  much  merit  of  Froebel's  originality  we  may  feel 
obliged  to  assign  to  educational  reformers  previous  to 
him,  we  have  to  confess  that  no  one  wove  a  similar 
filigree  net-work  of  tunes,  silvery  threads  of  love,  and 
childish  plays  to  suit  and  fit  our  babies  in  the  cradle. 
The  tender  little  hand,  with  its  still  more  tender 
fingers,  he  uses  as  the  symbol  of  family  unity.     Not  a 


186  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

single  member  of  the  whole,  great  or  small,  does  he 
leave  out.  Family  unity  —  the  nucleus  of  earth's  hap- 
piness and  earth's  goodness  —  as  a  part  of  the  large 
brotherhood,  he  sings  and  plays  into  the  awakened  soul 
of  the  baby.  Love  and  tenderness  are  the  educational 
atmosphere  in  which  he  wants  the  young  child  to  be 
continually  nourished  and  trained. 

The  following  present  a  few  specimens:  — 


TO   A   CHILD. 


187 


TO   A   CHILD. 

O  child !    O  new-born  denizen 
Of  life's  great  city,  on  thy  head 
The  glory  of  the  morn  is  shed 

Like  a  celestial  benison! 

Here  at  the  portal  thou  dost  stand, 

And  with  thy  little  hand 

Thou  openest  the  mysterious  gate 

Into  the  future's  undiscovered  land. 


Longfellow. 


188 


CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 


FROEBEL  S   MOTHERS     AND   NURSERY   SONGS. 


189 


Nos.  1,  2,  3,  4.    Pigeon-House. 

1.  The  Pigeon- House.  —  2.  Their  Flight. 
—  3.  The  Shutting  of  the  ltou»e.  —  i. 
The  Opening. 

We  open  now  the  pigeon-honsc, 

And  set  all  the  happy  fluttercrs  free. 
They  fly  over  the  fields  and  grassy  plains, 

Enjoying  their  sport  and  liberty; 
And  when  they  return  from  their  happy 

flight, 
We  shut  up  the  house,  and  bid  them  good 
night,  good  night. 

Coo-roo,  coo-roo,  coo-roo. 


No.  5.    The  Gardener. 

In  flowers  so  much  a  child  can  find, — 
The  colors,  sweet  and  tender,  of  any  kind  ; 
The   form,   sprayed,  round,   or  bell- like, 

large  or  frail; 
Bpored  like  a  spider,  curved  like  a  snail ; 
Grouped  like  umbrellas,  —  spikes,  disks, 

or  wheels, — 
And  will  find  all  the  names  in  its  natural 

zeal.  l. 


I 


No.  6.    The  Basket. 

We  the  slender  twigs  are  taking, 
And  nice  little  baskets  making. 
From  the  lovely  rosy  bowers, 
We  will  fill  it  with  sweet  flowers. 

La-la,  la-la,  la,  la,  la! 

Give  it  to  papa. 


s.  7a,  7b,  7c,  7d.    The  Little 
Gardener. 


la.  Imitates  the  Sowing  of  Seeds.  —  lb. 
Its  Protection  against  Wind  and  Cold. 
—  7c.  The  Support  of  the  Plant.  — Id. 
Presents  the  Formation  of  the  Flower. 

Open  wide  the  garden  gate,— 
AH  the  plants  need  tending. 
Water  from  the  well  we  're  holding, — 
Soon  will  help  the  buds  unfolding. 
Each  encloses  its  little  head, 
Greeting  us  with  spicy  smell. 


No.  8.    The  Farm-yard  Gate. 

What  can  that  be?    A  gate  I  see. 
Oh,  come  into  the  court  with  me! 

The  horses  are  springing; 

^The  pigeons  are  flying; 
"-The  geese  are  chattering; 

The  ducks  are  quacking; 

The  hens  are  cackling; 

The  cock  is  crowing; 

The  cow  is  lowing; 

The  calf  is  sporting; 

The  lamb  is  baaing; 

The  sheep  is  bleating; 

The  pig  is  grunting. 
Closely  shut  the  gate  must  be, 
That  no  one  can  run  away, 
But  all  in  peace  together  stay. 


No.  9.    The  Birds'  Nest. 

Two  pretty  birds  built  a  soft,  warm  nest, 
In  which  together  they  might  rest. 
Three  round  eggs  in  the  nest  they  lay, 
Hatching  three  little  birds  one  day. 
Twit,  twit,  twit,  the  little  ones  call, — 
Mother,  you  are  so  dear  to  us  all.    A.  u. 

No.  10.    The  Family. 

This  is  our  mother,  dear  and  good ; 
This  is  our  father  of  merry  mood ; 
This  is  the  big  brother,  so  strong  and  tall; 
This  is  our  dear  sister,  beloved  of  all; 
This  is  the  baby,  slender  and  small, — 
And  this  the  whole  family  we  call. 
Count  them,  — one,  two,  three,  four,  five. 
To  be  happy  and  good  they  always  strive. 


Nos.  11a,  lib,  lie.    The  Car- 
penter. 

Nos.  11a  and  116  are  intended  to  illustrate 
the  Cutting  and  Sawing  the  Tree  into 
Beams,  while  lie  indicates  the  House, 
with  its  Gable,  Window,  and  Poor. 

The  carpenter,  and  all  his  art, 
We  ought  to  honor  and  revere. 

Look  closely,  then,  at  every  part 
Of  all  his  clever  doings  here; 


190 


CONSCIOUS  MOTHEEHOOD, 


froebel's  mothers'  and  nursery  songs. 


191 


For  if  he  had  not  huilt  this  place  where 

mamma  is, 
Where  would  dear  baby  spend  her  kiss? 

L. 


Nos.  12a,  12b.    Pat  a  Cake. 

12a.  Patting  the  Cake.  — 12b.  Putting  it 
in  the  Oven. 

Baby  wants  to  try  and  make  us 
Such  a  cake  as  he  can  bake  us. 
Pat  your  cake,  — I  '11  show  you  how, — 
Baker  says,  It 's  quite  time  now.        L. 

No.  13.    The   Fingers  Dear. 

To  thumb  I  now  say  one; 

To  index  finger,  two; 

To  middle  finger,  three; 

To  ring  finger,  four; 

A  little  finger  five  I  number. 
Now  I  put  them  all  to  bed, 
Pillowed  on  their  sleepy  head,  — 

Let  them  rest  in  peace  and  slumber. 
A.  G. 


No.  14.    The  Window. 

Look,  baby,  through  the  window  bright,— 
It  gives  you  warmth,  it  gives  you  light. 
A  shining  plate  when  clean  and  clear, 
Like  baby's  eyes,  so  sweet  and  dear. 


No.  15.    The  Church  "Window. 

The  Heavenly  Father's  glorious  sun 
Shines  through  the  window,  and  makes 
it  bright. 

He  shines  on  thee  and  every  one, — 
Look  up,  and  thank  Him  for  His  light. 


No.  16.     Finger  Exercises  of 
Different  Kinds. 

Wouldst  thou  give  thy  chrld  of  outward 

things  a  notion? 
Let  it  early  learn  to  imitate  their  motions. 
Thus  in  these  things  deeply  ground  it. 

It  willl  learn 

To  discern 
And  to  copy  things  around  it.  a.  g. 


It  must  here  be  repeated  that  the  motions,  though 
developing,  skill  and  elasticity  of  the  hand,  are,  including 
the  words,  a  mere  skeleton  for  the  mother  to  enliven 
with  thoughts  and  moral  directions,  and  that  these  feeble 
attempts  will  lead  every  mother  and  kindergartener  to 
inspire  herself  through  the  original  "Froebel's  Mothers' 
ind  Nursery  Songs." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  CHILD'S  INDIVIDUAL  ACTIVITY  DEVELOPING 
BEASONING  FACULTIES,  WITHOUT  THE  USE  OF 
LANGUAGE. 

I.  The  Development  of  the  Faculty  of  Reasoning  through  Sympathetic 
Emotions,  supplemented  by  Dr.  Seguiu's  Opinion.  —  II.  Early  Edu- 
cational Influence  on  the  Power  of  Reason,  leading  to  Conclusion  and 
Judgment.  —  III.    Influence  on  Reason  by  early  Contact  with  Nature. 

I.  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  FACULTY  OF  REA- 
SONING THROUGH  SYMPATHETIC  EMOTIONS, 
SUPPLEMENTED   BY   DR.   SEGUIN'S   OPINION. 

Sir  John  Lubbock,  in  his  "Origin  of  Civilization," 
asks:  "How  is  it  that  intellectual  inertness,  amounting 
almost  to  stupidity,  is  frequently  the  concomitant  of 
an  acute  and  persistent  sense  training?"  We  refer  to 
the  fact  that  while  sensuous  emotions  are  necessary  to 
develop  the  power  of  imagination,  according  to  Prof. 
Wundt's  "Essays  on  Psychology,"  no  talent  or  genius  can 
be  developed  without  a  close  unity  of  emotions  with  the 
faculty  of  reason,  which  is  so  clearly  demonstrated  by 
the  idiots.  We  refer  every  thoughtful  educator,  who 
desires  to  learn  the  due  importance  of  this  pedagogical 
problem,  to  Dr.  Seguin's  valuable  statement:  "Unfor- 
tunately, it  is  and  will  remain  for  some  time  popular  to 


DEVELOPMENT   OF   THE    FACULTY   OF   SEASONING.       193 

extol  and  excite  what  is  called  the  intelligence  of  infants. 
But  if  an  infant  were  allowed  to  grow  by  his  physiologi- 
cal and  only  safe  growth,  it  would  be  seen  that  cerebral 
activity  does  not  play  the  conspicuous  part  we  attribute 
to  it,  and  that  what  we  mistake  for  judgment,  is  really 
the  child's  sympathies;  that  we  cannot,  without  peril, 
fill  his  brain  with  impressions  which  may,  or  may 
not,  in  after  years  become  the  elements  of  mental  oper- 
ations ;  and  that  unless  such  impressions  are  directed 
by  the  sympathetic  organs,  they  have  no  effect  on  the 
doings  of  childhood,  and  almost  none  on  those  of  later 
life ;  and  this  because  of  reasons,  two  of  which  will 
suffice. 

"  (a.)  At  this  age,  external  impressions  may  be  re- 
flected on  the  cerebral  convolutions,  and  on  the  sympa- 
thetic central  ganglia,  as  images  of  objects  are  reflected 
on  surfaces  sensitive  to  light,  but  there  is  this  difference  : 
that  when  the  impressions  on  the  gray  matter  of  the 
cerebral  convolutions  have  become  mixed  or  defaced, 
they  leave  no  trace ;  but  when  the  impressions  have 
vanished  from  the  sympathetic  central  ganglia,  they  yet 
leave  behind  such  indelible  determinations  as  will  over- 
rule the  intellectual  teaching. 

"(6.)     Another   difference   is  in   the  entrance  of  the 

perceptions  into  the   cerebrum  of  the  sympathetic  gan- 

lia.     If  the  object  to  be  perceived  is  directed  toward 

its   reflected    centers,    the   effort   of   thinking   is    almost 

always  too  great   for   the   object,   and,    greyhound-like, 


194  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

it  overleaps  what  we  wish  it  to  grasp ;  or,  if  it  com- 
prehends aright,  it  is  by  a  concentration  of  synergy, 
for  which  an  abnormal  amount  of  blood  is  accumulated 
in  the  encephalon;  the  congestion  is  announced  by  the 
color  and  swelling  of  the  blood-vessels,  and  the  effort, 
by  a  rise  of  the  surface  thermometer  at  the  temples. 
If,  on  the  contrary,  the  objects  presented  for  perception 
had  been  directed  toward  the  affective  nerve  center, 
their  impressions  are  more  sure,  and  do  not  predispose, 
like  the  former,  to  infantile  hemiplegia  or  meningitis. 
The  child  feels  them  like  a  sensation  about  the  diaphragm, 
during  which  the  respiration  may  be  somewhat  momen- 
tarily suspended  by  the  motion,  then  become  deeper, 
with  a  quicker  beat  of  the  heart,  and  a  blood  current 
of  inexpressible  happiness. 

"  Who  has  not  retained  at  least  a  vague  remembrance 
of  a  child's  feelings  when  permitted  to  enjoy  himself  with- 
out admixrure  of  forcing  reasons  on  the  emotions  pro- 
duced by  new  contacts,  new  movements,  new  colors,  new 
sounds,  new  voices,  new  associations,  new  scenery,  new 
people ;  for  instance,  the  features  of  a  new  baby  in  the 
family,  —  all  things  which,  touching  us  to  the  quick,  touch 
us  forever  ?  But  how  few  children  are  allowed  the  ineffa- 
ble delicacy  of  this  education  through  the  sympathies  ! 
Some  are  given  up  to  pedantic  mentors ;  some  crushed 
by  home  tyranny  ;  some  nursed  with  depressing  mytholo- 
gies ;  some  anaesthetized  of  noble  feelings  by  defusing 
wants ;    most   are  rebuked   for  their  silly  eagerness  to 


DEVELOPMENT    OF   THE    FACULTY   OF    REASONING.       195 

know  things  which  they  can  find  out  for  themselves  as 
soon  as  they  have  mastered  the  twenty-six  symbols, 
which  are  supposed  to  contain  all  knowledge,  and  there- 
fore are  hurried  to  the  book.  And  how  few  remain, — 
stray  babies  on  the  laps  of  placid  mothers,  —  allowed  to 
feel  their  own  surroundings,  and  to  come  out  from  this 
emotional  baptism,  poets,  painters,  savants,  interpreters 
in  their  own  language  of  Mother  Nature  !  Agassiz  began 
one  of  his  most  renowned  courses  by  begging  each  of  his 
pupils  to  come  to  the  opening  lesson  with  a  grasshopper 
in  his  hand.  Why  could  we  not  begin  lower  Iwith  in- 
fants by  encouraging  them  to  come  to  us  in  the  nursery, 
kindergarten,  and  schools  (which  I  always  encourage 
them  to  do)  with  the  things  in  their  hands  which  please 
best?  When  the  child  is  yet  attached  to  the  breast  of 
the  mother,  everything  coming  to  his  senses,  especially 
to  his  touch  by  contact  with  her,  is  intuitively  known  and 
felt  through  sympathy,  without  the  slightest  interference 
of  the  mind. 

r  When  this  view  shall  have  received  the  attention  of 
true  mothers  and  teachers,  they  will  alter  their  curricu- 
lum in  this  wise :  will  cease  exclusively  to  cultivate  the 
upper  portion  of  the  nervous  system,  and  will  bestow  a 
proportionate  attention  to  the  wants  of  the  more  central 
ganglia,  and  train  the  functions  of  the  whole  system  in 
view  of  their  correlations  and  concordance.  Then  will 
cease  to  rule,  rage  and  ruin,  the  inner  dualism.  Then 
teachers  will   be    able  to   return   service  for   service  to 


196   .  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

physiologists  by  demonstrating  that  the  cause  of  the 
increase  of  insanity,  indeed  of  almost  all  the  insanities,  is 
the  discordance,  nay,  the  antagonism,  raised  by  education, 
custom,  and  creeds,  between  the  cephalic  and  the  central 
parts  of  the  nervous  circuit;  that  the  functions  disor- 
ganized at  first  are  curable  at  once,  but  that  the  organs 
subsequently  altered  by  accoutumance  or  shock  are  ren- 
dered incurable.  This  we  predict,  and  support  on  the 
evidence  that,  in  true  savage  life,  where  the  whole  ner- 
vous system  is  evenly  let  alone  to  the  drifts  of  instincts, 
insanity  is  unknoivn ;  but  where  the  strain  on  the  mind 
is  excessive,  and  the  sympathetic  wants  ignored  or  sub- 
dued, insanity  is  rife." 

II.  EARLY  EDUCATIONAL  INFLUENCE  ON  THE 
POWER  OF  REASON,  LEADING  TO  CONCLUSION 
AND  JUDGMENT. 

If  the  intention  of  the  writer  to  awaken  conscious 
motherhood  could  have  led  to  exaggeration,  the  fore- 
going suggestions,  supplemented  by  Prof.  Dalie  at  the 
Salpetriere  at  Paris,  and  other  scientists,  would  justify 
them.  They  reveal  but  truth,  which  any  thoughtful 
observation  on  children  verifies,  and  which  any  mother 
cpuld  live  up  to  understandingly. 

Preyer's  sixteenth  chapter,  on  the  development  of 
childish  reasoning  independent  of  the  knowledge  of 
speech,  offers  many  valuable  hints.  Comfort  and  discom- 
fort in  their  extremes,  "pleasure  "  and  "pain,"  include  the 


EARLY   EDUCATIONAL   INFLUENCE.  197 

whole  scale  of  feelings  in  the  child,  according  to  the 
observations  of  Preyer ;  these  feelings  are  not  so  varied 
as  in  an  adult,  on  account  of  the  incompleted  activity 
of  the  senses,  though  they  may  be  more  intense. 

The  unconscious  sensation  of  joy  which  the  child  in- 
stinctively demands,  Preyer  states,  if  not  granted,  creates 
his  discomfort. 

The  sensation  of  wet,  of  sweet  odors,  experienced 
by  the  child  through  contact  with  milk,  leads  it  either 
to  a  comfortable  or  uncomfortable  feeling,  which  re- 
peated in  space  and  time  grows  into  a  clear  concep- 
tion ;  which  later  perceived  by  the  conscious  act  of 
connecting  two  sensations  with  an  idea  becomes  the  start- 
ing-point of  reason,  from  which,  like  a  circle  around  a 
circle,  the  powers  to  perceive  in,  to  connect  with,  and 
to  abstract  from  radiate  into  conclusion  and  judgment. 
This  process  serves  a  twofold  end,  namely,  to  widen, 
and  by  repetition  to  deepen  the  power  of  reason  and 
judgment.  To  regulate  and  to  strengthen  these  powers 
at  the  outset  is  the  educational  demand.  As  in  the  as- 
similation of  nutrition  by  the  body,  the  amount  and  the 
combination  of  impressions  to  be  assimilated  by  the  men- 
tal and  spiritual  powers  of  the  child  must  be  considered ; 
as  the  food  assimilates  itself  with  the  physical  growth 
of  the  child,  no  mental  and  spiritual  growth  can  be  ex- 

cted  before  the  act  of  assimilation  is  accomplished. 

In  the  same  degree  as  unnatural  food  injures  the 
stomach  of  the    small  child,  so  unnatural    mental  food 


of 

- 

st< 


198  Conscious  motherhood. 

will  injure  the  mind  of  the  young  child.  The  impor- 
tance of  this  fact  has  been  repeatedly  discussed  in  this 
book,  but  it  can  never  be  repeated  too  often.  W.  Preyer 
points  to  the  simple  means  with  which  his  child  accom- 
plishes its  self-education,  by  observing  causes  and  effects. 
His  child  experimented  with  a  glove,  with  the  hair  of  his 
mother,  the  stove,  the  demijohn,  by  grasping  after  the 
smoke  of  his  father's  cigar,  by  opening  and  closing  his 
ear  to  test  differences  of  sounds,  by  striking  his  spoon  on 
his  hand,  on  his  plate,  or  tearing  the  newspaper. 

It  was  not  the  name,  but  the  nature  of  the  thing  which 
occupied  the  mind  of  the  child.  This  inborn  tendency 
seems  to  explain  the  possibility  of  the  child's  capacity 
to  think  without  words,  by  connecting  the  sensations 
received  directly  in  pictures  before  the  mind.  Galton 
refers  to  the  human  power  to  think,  as  it  were,  by  means 
of  a  second  thought,  which  arises  without  an  act  of  the 
will,  creating  before  the  mind  certain  forms  or  mind-pic- 
tures which  represent  numbers  or  objects.  Whatever  this 
process  may  be,  no  one  denies  that  the  child  develops 
its  mental  capacities  exclusively  on  concrete  impressions, 
which  become  assimilated  with  its  fundamental  or  innate 
disposition  (individuality). 

Here  we  may  say  lies  coiled  up  man's  apperception 
in  the  embryo.  If  the  child  in  this  first  period  of  its  life 
be  surrounded  by  the  gloomy  and  chilly  dampness  of  a 
cellar,  or  the  balmy  brightness  and  sunshine  of  a  country 
home   among   trees   and  flowers,  by  sadly  depressed  or 


H 


EARLY   EDUCATIONAL   INFLUENCE.  199 


happy  laughing  faces,  its  innate  propensities  are  affected, 
and  directed  for  good  or  for  ill.  We  say  propensities, 
that  is,  spiritual  powers  whose  want  of  exercise  may  pre- 
vent the  common  farmer  from  perceiving  the  beauty  of 
his  surroundings,  while  their  exercise  makes  the  simple- 
hearted  and  simple-living  Swiss  die  when  deprived  of  his 
Alps. 

What  a  responsibility,  then,  for  mothers  and  parents 
at  this  period  of  development,  in  which  full  freedom  for 
an  individual  unfoldment  and  a  wise  direction  of  will  and 
reason  coincide  !  And  here  we  refer  once  more  to  the 
idea  of  an  educational  atmosphere  which  provides  such 
means  as  will  foster  a  harmonious  development  of  the 
senses,  the  will,  the  reason,  and  the  higher  emotions,  and 
consist  chiefly  of  good  example,  and  the  banishment 
of  all  bad  examples.  Preyer's  observations  on  his  child 
show  us  that  he  reasoned  on  the  sympathies  of  his  father. 

e  found  on  doing  certain  actions  that  he  met  with  a 
certain  treatment,  and  so  he  affected  such  situations  when 
the  cause  for  them  did  not  exist ;  as,  for  instance,  when 
he  wanted  "  to  leave  the  room."  We  perceive  the  steady 
control  of  will  by  the  child's  not  attempting  to  walk 
until  certain  he  would  not  fall.  Mr.  Lindner  states  that 
while  his  little  girl,  twenty-six  weeks  old,  was  lying  on 
her  back,  taking  milk,  the  bottle  slipped  sideways  so 
that  she  could  not  drink.     To  remedy  this,  she  used  her 

et  to  lift  it  sufficiently  high  to  get  her  food,   and  so 

cceeded.     At  twelve  months  old  Preyer's  boy  grasped 


200  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

the  flame  of  a  candle,  and  burned  himself.  He  could 
never  be  induced  to  put  his  finger  in  the  flame  again. 
This  happened  at  the  same  age  with  the  boy  of  Mr. 
Darwin. 

At  eighteen  months  Preyer's  child  had  ceased  to  throw 
his  toys  on  the  floor,  because  he  had  been  repeatedly  told 
not  to  do  so.  He  showed  comical  respect  toward  good 
habits  and  the  educational  impressions  he  had  received, 
by  his  excited  disgust  when  he  saw  his  nurse  eat  with  her 
knife,  etc. 

This  proves  the  possibility  and  necessity  of  the 
early  direction  of  will  and  reason.  The  child  of  Prof. 
Preyer  was  evidently  born  with  unusual  powers  of 
causality  as  well  of  self-respect,  caution,  and  imita- 
tion, as  shown  by  his  desire  to  have  a  trail  like  his 
mother's ;  but  it  does  not  appear  that  his  sense  of  pro- 
priety could  be  compared  with  that  of  the  child  who 
remembered  the  loss  of  one  of  his  animals  or  ninepins 
when  only  eighteen  months  old. 

Though  of  late  many  have  studied  and  written  on 
the  earliest  development  of  the  child,  as,  for  instance, 
Kussmaul,  Genzmer,  Sigismund,  Golz,  Lindner,  Mrs. 
Friedman,  Mrs.  von  Strampel,  and  Baroness  von  Taube 
nee  Countess  Keyserling,  Darwin,  Bain,  Taine,  Perez, 
and  finally  the  Eussian  Dr.  Sikorski  and  the  valuable 
American  writer,  E.  Seguin,1  no  work  can  be  compared 

1  Where  are  our  intelligent,  inspired,  and  capable  female  doctors  of 
America? 


EARLY   EDUCATIONAL   INFLUENCE.  201 

with  W.  Preyer's  as  regards  its  extent,  exactness,  and 
scientific  profundity,  connecting  a  psycho-physiological 
development  of  the  child  with  pedagogical  conclusions. 
Coinciding  in  opinions  with  Preyer,  Fried.  Froebel  de- 
mands M  self- development "  through  free  individual  ac- 
tivities for  the  child  in  the  cradle ;  and  he  presents 
the  world  with  his  priceless  gems  on  education,  found 
in  his  ball  plays  and  kindergarten  occupations,  mother 
and  nursery  songs.  These  enable  the  mother  to  sing 
and  play  the  most  natural  human  unfoldment  into 
the  mind  of  the  child,  not  by  a  series  of  arbitrary  ac- 
tions, but  by  an  educational  atmosphere  for  a  free  in- 
dividual growth,  for  which  she  has  to  be  prepared. 

As  emphasizing  the  extent  to  which  modern  educa- 
tional thought  has  taken  its  tone  from  the  note  sounded 
by  Froebel,  wc  quote  the  following  out  of  an  essay  by 
Dr.  Gustav  Wittmer,  of  Cassel,1  published  in  a  recent 
German  magazine  :  — 

"As  regards  the  forming  of  character,  every  school,  of 
course,  believes  itself  performing  its  whole  duty  in  that 
direction.  How  does  one,  after  all,  build  character?  and 
can  it  be  built  by  theory,  by  words,  in  the  schools  of 
to-day?  Under  a  rational  bringing  up,  character  unfolds 
quite  of  itself,  while  constantly  habituated  to  the  good 
and  the  true,  within  the  boundaries  of  a  strictly  legitimate 
sphere  of  activity,  adapted  to  the  individual  advancement. 

'Editor  of  ])ieErziehuni?  der  Gegenwart. 


202  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

This  rational  bringing  up,  this  habituation,  logically  be- 
gins, however,  with  the  very  birth  of  the  child ;  indeed, 
the  very  earliest  years  of  life,  those  before  the  school 
age,  are  in  this  aspect  the  most  important,  because  in 
these  years  the  greatest  changes  take  place  in  the  physi- 
cal brain. 

"Pedagogics  which  leaves  these  years  out  of  the  ac- 
count, does  not  deserve  to  be  called  rational  or  scientific, 
—  it  is  built  upon  the  sand.  The  objection  will,  perhaps, 
be  made  here,  that  the  earliest  years  cannot  be  treated  me- 
thodically, or  that,  if  so,  the  treatment  will  be  unnatural ; 
that  one  must  leave  the  reins  to  nature.  In  answer  to 
the  first  objection,  I  admit  that,  in  the  hands  of  a  man, 
such  treatment  would  be  impossible ;  but  in  the  hands  of 
a  woman,  not  only  not  impossible,  but  very  easily  prac- 
ticable. It  follows  that,  in  respect  to  educational  peda- 
gogics, both  sexes  go  hand  in  hand.  It  may  be  regarded 
as  established  a  priori  that  the  being  who  brings  the 
child  into  the  world  possesses  also  by  necessity  the  dis- 
position and  the  capacity  to  guide  the  child  in  the  world, 
and  to  direct  its  life  in  a  suitable  manner ;  that  is,  in  a 
manner  not  merely  instinctive. 

"Not  that  under  favorable  circumstances,  and  by  the 
merest  instinct,  good  results  have  not  been  attained,  and 
many  a  mother  has  been  and  is  an  excellent  educator, 
without  any  special  previous  preparation ;  but  these  are 
exceptions.  In  this  article  we  are  dealing  with  a  princi- 
ple, and  speaking  from  a  scientific  stand-point.     It  would 


EARLY   EDUCATIONAL    INFLUENCE.  203 

be  barbarous  to  aim  to  guide  ourselves  in  a  spiritual 
department  by  the  natural  instinct  which  we  perceive  in 
the  lower  animals  ;  we  need  also  an  art  of  rearing.  Man 
will  never  go  forward  so  confidently  under  the  leadership 
of  instinct  as  do  the  lower  animals,  for  his  self-determi- 
nation is  freer,  and  in  individual  cases  he  is  far  more 
likely  to  be  subjected  to  error  than  is  the  animal.  And 
why  should  we  fall  back  upon  instinct,  when  much  more 
is  to  be  attained  by  care  and  intelligence  ? 

"As  a  being  endowed  with  intelligence  and  reason,  a 
woman  has  the  same  right  as  a  man  to  be  placed  above 
the  measure  of  the  merely  instinctive.  Surely,  in  no 
other  department  in  life  do  we  let  the  purely  instinctive 
control  us.  We  neither  till  the  soil,  nor  paint,  nor  cul- 
tivate music  instinctively ;  nor  do  we  attend  in  the  same 
way  to  commerce  or  industry.  Even  war  counts  as  an 
art.  And  shall  the  development  of  a  child,  the  greatest 
art  of  all,  be  left  to  the  guidance  of  the  instinct?  We 
should  by  that  means  pronounce  woman  mentally  inferior 
in  a  way  as  baseless  as  it  would  be  unworthy.  And  here, 
at  the  same  time,  we  meet  the  second  objection,  viz., 
that  it  would  be  unnatural  to  subject  the  earliest  years  of 
life  to  a  methodical  treatment.  Although  the  mental  and 
moral  capacities  of  the  child  may  be  only  potentially  in 
existence  (in  the  germ),  still  they  are  there,  and  demand 
activity. 

"Does  any  one  really  believe  that  nature  flings  aim- 
lessly away  the  precious  years  of  infancy,  up  to  the  time 


204  CONSCIOUS   MOTHEKHOOD. 

the  child  may  enter  school?  Is  the  child  during  these 
years  only  a  toy,  a  doll  for  the  mother  and  other  fond 
relations,  an  object  of  silly  and  purposeless  play  ?  Nay, 
the  child  very  early  longs  for  the  exercise  of  its  powers, 
and,  as  a  rule,  no  one  knows  how  to  provide  this  exercise. 
It  is  this  misunderstood  urgency  of  the  child  to  be 
occupied,  to  use  his  faculties,  which  brings  so  many 
inexperienced  mothers  into  despair,  because  they  do  not 
know  how  to  satisfy  it.  The  child  does  not  wish  to  be 
aimlessly  entertained ;  his  whole  being  consists  in  touch- 
ing, hear/ing,  and  seeing,  —  he  sucks  in  the  impressions 
which  surround  him.  Now,  every  one  should  understand 
that  the  child,  earnestly  wrestling  for  the  exercise  of  his 
bodily  and  mental  powers,  may  be  entertained  according 
to  some  purpose  and  plan,  and  at  the  same  time  not  sub- 
ject him  to  any  undue  exertion.  On  the  contrary,  the 
child  has  the  more  joy  and  profit,  instead  of  a  wild  chaos 
of  objects,  forms,  colors,  and  tones,  with  which  he  is 
surrounded  by  his  parents.  All  these  things  may  as 
well  be  given  him  in  orderly  sequence.  The  chaos  out 
of  which  the  human  soul  must  struggle  upward  is  not 
then  the  result  of  a  law  of  nature,  but  because  we  have 
hitherto  not  understood  how  to  make  the  struggle  easier 
for  these  young  souls.  Let  no  one  believe,  however, 
that  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference  what  soil  of  earliest 
environment  the  child  grows  up  amidst.  Whatever  was 
around  him  then,  whatever  he  lived  through  at  that  time, 
has  a  determining  influence  far  into  the  maturer  years 


EARLY   EDUCATIONAL   INFLUENCE.  205 


of  his  life,  often  through  his  whole  life.  The  founda- 
tion-stones of  human  life  are  fixed  in  these  years,  even 
if  the  complete  superstructure  is  only  possible  when  the 
noise  of  the  world  begins  around  him. 

w  And  now  we  must  return  to  the  question  whether  the 
school  does  in  reality  teach  'for  life';  and  this  time  we 
ask  the  question  with  especial  reference  to  the  girls' 
school.  What,  in  sober  earnest,  is  the  destiny  allotted 
to  girls  in  this  life? 

"  However  various  the  careers  now  open  to  women,  it 
may  still  be  accepted  as  true  that  the  large  majority  of 
them  are  destined  to  become  housekeepers  and  instruc- 
tors, either  in  their  own  homes  or  in  larger  circles. 
No  one  doubts  this.  Their  culture,  then,  should  corre- 
spond to  this  exception.  On  the  one  hand,  this  culture 
cannot  be  too  practical ;  on  the  other,  it  cannot  be 
too  theoretical.  For  the  above-named  vocation  places 
the  woman  in  a  curriculum  of  labors  and  duties  whose 
fulfillment  is  only  possible  to  a  many-sided  mental  and 
spiritual  culture.  The  question  whether  the  woman 
should  be  educated  for  a  domestic  life  alone,  or  for 
other  and  higher  aims,  is  quite  superfluous ;  she  must 
be  educated  for  both,  for  the  highest  aims  which  a  woman 
can  have  are  to  be  found  in  her  home.  As  house-mother, 
she  must  have  practical  knowledge ;  as  instructor,  she 
must  be  initiated  into  the  highest  questions  which  affect 
humanity,  whether  these  questions  concern  science  and 
art,  or  politics  and  sociology.     She  must  learn   psychol- 


206  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

ogy,  pedagogics,  hygiene,  singing,  drawing,  belles-let- 
tres, etc.  She  must  at  least  know  the  meaning  of,  and 
be  able  to  find  her  way  in,  all  these  departments  of 
human  knowledge.  For  in  the  guidance  of  children,  all 
these  subjects  come  in  for  their  share  of  attention. 

ftAnd  now  let  us  ask  again,  does  the  school,  espe- 
cially the  finishing  school  for  young  women,  correspond 
to  the  requirements  ?  It  is  very  difficult  to  refrain  from 
satire  at  this  point.  Dilettanteism,  superficial  and  pur- 
poseless smatterings  of  many  studies,  are  the  princi- 
pal fruits  of  these  institutions.  They  give  too  little 
for  science  and  too  much  for  mere  living,  and  must 
carry  in  their  shallowness  the  seeds  of  their  own  de- 
struction. We  need,  instead  of  these,  institutions  that 
will  give  women  a  solid,  genuine  education,  fully  cov- 
ering the  demands  of  their  vocations,  and  which  shall 
indeed  provide  the  very  highest  scientific  training  for 
those  women  who  are  capable  of  receiving  it,  and  whose 
natural  endowments  fit  them  for  special  careers. 

"  By  this  means  we  shall  find  the  simplest  solution  of 
the  much-discussed  woman  question,  and  shall  lay  at  the 
same  time  a  firm  and  sure  foundation  for  pedagogics. 
But  there  is  no  longer  any  question  as  to  the  way  in 
which  is  to  be  developed  the  pedagogic  activity  of  wo- 
man. That  way  has  been  clearly  and  certainly  marked 
out  by  Pestalozzi,  and  most  especially  by  Friedrich 
Froebel.  Mothers  have  this  science  in  their  hands, 
and   have   also   the  first   steps   of  its   application.     The 


EARLY    EDUCATIONAL    INFLUENCE.  207 


grand  significance  of  Froebel's  method,  when  regarded 
as  a  means  for  character  building,  consists  in  the  fact 
that  it  is  fashioned  upon  the  model  already  given  by 
nature,  which  recognizes  the  human  being  as  not  merely 
a  rational  being,  but  as  a  creative  being. 

Character  can  be  rightly  built  only  by  the  early  di- 
rection of  this  childish  creative  energy  into  the  right 
paths ;  and  this  method  finds  little  or  no  recognition  in 
the  schools  of  to-day.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  state  to 
place  this  matter  of  human  rearing  on  the  high  plane 
proper  to  it.  It  has  less  right  to  leave  to  private  ef- 
fort this  matter,  which  so  deeply  concerns  future  gen- 
erations, than  it  has  to  leave  to  the  same  effort  the 
forest  culture  over  which  it  now  so  vigilantly  watches. 
What  the  forest  garden  is  to  the  one,  the  kindergarten 
is  to  the  other.  It  should  be  seen  to  that  the  kinder- 
garten be  attached  as  an  organic  member  to  the  schools, 
and  that  the  schools  themselves  be  reorganized,  so  as  to 
gain  a  unity  with  this  addition  of  the  kindergarten,  and 
also  that  in  the  higher  grades  there  is  an  increased  sub- 
division, so  that  no  mistake  need  be  possible,  either  in  the 
choice  of  the  school,  or  in  the  vocation  of  the  scholar. 

"The  kindergarten  has  still  numerous  enemies  among 
us,  and  this  discovery,  so  genuinely  German  as  it  is, 
is,  like  so  many  other  German  discoveries,  only  to  find 
its  full  acceptance  by  us  when  it  returns  as  a  foreign 
development.  But  at  least  the  fact  that  the  years  before 
the  legal  school  age  of  children  are  the  most  important 


208  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

years  educationally,  remains  indisputable.  It  has  been 
demonstrated  by  the  most  eminent  scientists.  And  if 
one  admits  this,  and  still  refuses  to  proceed  on  the 
Froebel  principle,  he  is  caught  in  the  most  glaring  con- 
tradiction. If  he  does  not  admit  this,  and  does  know 
some  better  method  for  the  guidance  of  early  childhood, 
then  let  him  come  forward  with  his  method !  We  chal- 
lenge him  to  this  in  the  name  of  rational  pedagogics." 

III.     INFLUENCE    ON     REASON    BY    EARLY     CONTACT 
WITH    NATURE. 

It  has  been  our  special  aim  to  refer  repeatedly  to  the 
influence  of  an  early  contact  with  nature  by  pointing 
to  poets  and  artists,  and  the  pennyless  yet  happy  Swiss 
cow-boys  on  the  Alps,  who  enjoy  the  beauty  and  lan- 
guage of  their  surroundings. 

No  student  of  man  denies  that  a  great  part  of  man's 
restless  desire  for  happiness  is  based  on  the  want  of 
something  outward,  which  he  has  not  within;  on  that 
feeling  of  emptiness  which  is  due  to  the  want  of  cul- 
tivated powers  to  assimilate  a  higher  conception  with 
our  common  phenomena  of  life,  or  to  make  objective 
abstraction  on  e very-day  things. 

This  lack  of  culture  drives  men  mercilessly  away  from 
the  simpler  enjoyments  of  life.  The  point  toward  this 
end  most  neglected  is  that  love  of  nature,  which  is  not 
natural  science  so  long:  as  it  makes  classification  its 
chief  aim.     Yet   love   of  nature   depends   on   knowledge 


INFLUENCE    ON    REASON, 


209 


of  nature,  a  comparative  reasoning  on  all  its  coming  and 
passing  phenomena  ;  the  accumulation  of  an  inexhaustible 
treasure,  which  never  fails  in  a  soothing  religious  effect,  a 
direction  of  the  thought  at  any  moment  to  the  overflowing 
source  of  comparative  reasoning,  which  abolishes  that 
emptiness  which  is  so  often  the  mother  of  vice  and  ruin. 

(The  transportable  nursery  of  Emma  Marwedel,  with 
its  forms  of  nature,  will  answer  the  needs  of  the  small 
child  in  this  respect.) 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  QBADUAL  STEPS  OF  LEARNING  TO  SPEAK,  AND  HOW 
TO  USE  SPEECH 

I.  Early  Care  of  the  Vocal  Organs.  —  II.  Cultivation  of  the  Ear  for  good 
Language,  including  Alliteration  and  good  Music.  —  III.  Cultivation 
of  the  Mind  for  Exact  and  True  Language.  —  IV.  Cultivation  of  Inde- 
pendence for  Original  Language. 

I.  EARLY  CARE  OF  THE  VOCAL  ORGANS. 

If  the  child's  first  efforts  to  speak  were  considered 
only  from  its  physical  stand-point,  as  explained  by 
Preyer,  they  would  not  fail  to  awaken  the  interest,  to 
excite  the  study  of  every  mother  and  teacher  in  the  land ; 
but  how  much  more  interest  is  offered  when  it  includes 
the  use  of  this  superior  gift !  Keeping  in  mind  the  great 
difference  in  human  condition,  comfort,  and  discomfort, 
we  perceive  in  human  language  the  means  to  express  all 
that  lies  between  these  two  extremes,  and  the  existence 
of  "joy  and  pain."  Language  paints  man's  thoughts, 
feelings,  and  aspirations  in  all  their  phases,  being  the 
truest  representation  of  the  Ego.  Natural  superiority  in 
the  power  of  expression  and  modulation  of  the  voice 
reveals  itsClf  in  melodious  language,  while  harshness 
affects  language  in  a  like  degree  unpleasantly.  Through 
all  civilized  ages,  the  culture  of  oratory  has  been  regarded 


EAKLY  CARE  OF  THE  VOCAL  ORGANS.       211 

as  an  accomplishment  of  man,  and  history  has  reverently 
honored  those  who  possessed  oratorical  powers  in  the 
highest  degree.  The  culture  of  the  voice  has  become 
a  special  study.  To  whom  is  it  applied?  Is  it  used 
where  it  would  have  its  greatest  effect,  even  with  the 
baby  in  the  cradle?  Is  it  taught  by  the  mother?  Is  she 
as  anxious  that  her  girl  should  use  her  language  with  a 
full,  melodious  voice,  as  that  she,  if  grown  up,  should 
wear  a  No.  2  or  3  shoe  and  No.  5  glove?  Preyer  con- 
trived exercises  introducing  the  utterance  of  sounds,  in- 
cluding those  of  a  foreign  language.  They  may  suggest 
such  motherly  thoughts  and  actions  that  my  long-cherished 
plan  will  yet  be  attained,  of  cultivating  in  the  way  of 
play  the  elasticity  and  volume  of  the  voice  by  means 
of  a  well-prepared  table  on  which  may  be  produced  the 
fundamental  sounds  of  all  languages  and  the  special 
sounds  of  each  language.  Let  this  be  done,  instead  of 
teaching  Mother  Goose's  rhymes,1  the  privileged  de- 
stroyer and  murderer  of  all  natural  connection  of  thought 
with  its  oral  expression,  which  in  many  cases  is  the  only 
mental  food  the  small  child  gets. 

1  It  is  not  so  much  the  nonsense  of  the  songs,  but  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  recited  to  the  child,  which  is  harmful. 


212  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

II.     CULTIVATION  OF  THE  EAR  FOR  GOOD  LANGUAGE, 
INCLUDING    ALLITERATION   AND   GOOD  MUSIC. 

The  highly  interesting  observations  which  Prof.  Preyer 
made  on  the  development  of  his  child's  language,  and 
its  connection  with  the  growth  of  its  mental  powers, 
must  attract  every  mother,  and  lead  her  to  similar  ac- 
tion. The  process  he  describes  seems  a  slow  one  for  an 
average  child,  for  an  American  child  an  exceptionally 
slow  one ;  but  its  extension  makes  it  the  more  instruc- 
tive. It  shows  the  fatherly  care  for  a  good  language,  by 
directing  the  child's  pronunciation  carefully,  and  the  de- 
velopment of  its  ear  and  reason  by  example.  Germany 
so  abounds  in  dialects  that  they  are  counted,  not  by 
kingdoms  and  dukedoms,  but  by  counties  and  cities ;  so 
that  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  very  rare  case  that  under  the 
special  care  bestowed  upon  the  writer  and  her  sisters  and 
brothers  by  her  parents,  in  spite  of  the  different  dialects 
she  heard  spoken  (having  moved  several  times),  her  own 
language  was  kept  free  from  any  accent,  —  a  great  advan- 
tage in  learning  foreign  languages.  But  while  her  French, 
which  she  learned  quite  young,  could  not  be  detected  as 
that  of  a  foreigner,  she  feels  the  lack  of  earliest  training 
in  English  idioms.  America  has  only  one  language,  its 
slight  diversities  being  hardly  perceptible.  It  has  no 
"  patois  "  except  the  language  of  the  negroes.  The  school 
language  in  its  preciseness  and  compactness  governs  the 
whole. 


CULTIVATION  OF   THE   EAR.  213 

And  here  lies  its  advantage,  its  danger.  The  French 
speak  rapidly,  but  emphasize  strongly,  producing  inter- 
vals. The  Americans  speak  still  more  rapidly,  and  in 
short  sentences,  without  emphasis,  save  a  certain  falling 
inflection  at  the  end  of  the  sentence.  These  are  habits 
which,  if  moderated  in  time,  will  give  the  American 
nation,  with  its  w  born  speakers,"  with  their  self-confi- 
dence, and  ample  opportunity  for  practice,  a  high  rank 
in  oratory.  But  home  and  school  have  to  do  their  part 
understandingly. 

Eecognizing  my  own  obligation  as  a  teacher,  I  en- 
gaged, extra,  the  best  elocutionist  of  the  place  to  do 
justice  to  those  tender  beings  trusted  to  my  care.  For- 
tunately, I  found  at  least  one  teacher  who  understood 
how  to  impress  the  tender  minds  with  the  full  influence 
of  her  art,  and  the  effects  gained  proved  lasting. 

I  have  taken  several  opportunities  to  refer  to  the  in- 
born power  of  the  child  for  a  symbolic  poetical  concep- 
tion of  things.  Prof.  Preyer's  definition  of  the  manner 
in  which  a  child  learns  to  speak  makes  this  very  clear. 
The  child  really  thinks  in  symbol,  or  the  reality  of  the 
idea  or  meaning  for  which  we  use  words.  Without 
dependence  on  the  tone  of  the  word,  it  lives  and  feels 
in  the  shades  of  tones,  which  stream  out  in  rich  melo- 
dies, giving  each  object  its  note  in  the  accord  of  harmo- 
nies. 

Rhyme  and  alliteration,  a  harmonious  composition  of 
shades  of  tones,    fall  naturally   into  the  open    mind   of 


214  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

the  child,  and  even  supply  a  natural  craving  of  the  child. 
Why  do  we  call  the  first  utterance  of  sound  of  the 
baby  "cooing"?  And  why  is  it  that  even  the  harshest 
mind  cannot  resist  the  vague  melodies  which  seem  to 
descend  from  a  strange  world,  reflecting  the  fullness 
and  mystery  of  a  new  being,  never  existing  before, 
bringing  to  light  its  inborn  hieroglyphic,  individual 
language,  the  very  rhythm  of  its  soul?  Do  we  continue 
to  nourish  the  child  with  such  soul-language?  Do  we 
speak  not  only  well  to  the  child,  but  also  in  the  best 
rhymes,  constructed,  too,  in  the  form  of  alliteration? 
Their  mathematical  and  ethical  effect  combined  will  bear 
rich  fruit  forever.  But  above  all  stand  the  melodies 
of  the  heart  and  soul  of  the  mother.  What  her  moral 
and  mental  lullabies  sing  into  the  being  and  living  of 
her  child  will  remain  forever.  Singing  is  the  highest 
expression  of  man,  and  should  be  connected  even  with 
babyhood. 

The  Greeks  made  music  a  universal  art,  by  which 
they  educated  their  young.  Their  history  was  sung  by 
their  youths,  while  their  illustrious  fathers  partook  of 
their  simple  meals.  Graceful  movement  plays,  the  crown 
of  their  Olympic  games,  were  but  symmetrically  arranged 
musical  gestures.  It  is  the  harmony,  the  soft  rhythm 
of  music,  which  should  penetrate  the  character  of  man, 
to  free  him  from  the  burning  fever  of  excitement.  But 
it  has  still  another  aim,  and  that  is  its  physical,  its 
hygienic   effect.     Singing,   especially  early   singing,  en- 


CULTIVATION   OF    THE    MIND.  215 

larges  the  chest,  improves  the  strength  of  the  breathing 
organs,  and  develops  a  happy,  joyful  disposition.  The 
home  and  kindergarten,  when  convinced  of  the  necessity 
for  better  (why  not  classical?)  music,  can  exercise  a  great 
directing  power.1 


III.     CULTIVATION     OF    THE    MIND    FOR    EXACT    AND 
TRUE  LANGUAGE. 

Prof.  Preyer  furnishes  his  readers  with  suggestions  of 
great  pedagogic  value,  by  following  the  truth-seeking 
and  truth-speaking  disposition  of  his  child.  In  an  age 
like  ours,  in  which  "  unreliableness "  has  almost  grown 
into  a  proverb,  such  care  has  double  value. 

The  writer  refers  in  another  place  to  her  reason  for 
a  standard  of  measurement,  chosen  on  account  of  its  fit- 
ness to  present  the  actual  size  of  those  objects  connected 
with  her  circular  sewing  and  drawing  system,  where  she 
felt  the  strong  necessity  of  leading  the  child  to  a  truthful 
measurement  by  abolishing  the  existing  vagueness  be- 
tween real  and  imagined  sizes.  The  hurry  with  which 
we  rush  through  our  days,  the  desire  to  appear  what 
we  are  not,  the  endless  binding  and  never-ending  and 
contradictory  social  phrases  and  obligations,  produce  ef- 
fects which  explain  our  deteriorating  moral  condition. 
Instead  of  keeping  our  children  away  from  these,  as   it 

1  Think  of  Eeincke's,  Taubert's,  Mendelssohn's,  Mr.  Daniel  Batchel- 
lor's,  Schumann's,  and  other  composers'  attention  to  children's  needs. 


216  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

is  claimed,  unavoidable  social  calamities,  we  bring  them 
unflinchingly  in  full  contact  with  those  evils,  saying 
that  "they  have  to  know  it,  anyhow."  What  wonder, 
then,  that  I  was  met  one  day  by  a  teacher,  who  remarked, 
tf  All  children  are  born  liars."  Why  not  say  trained 
liars?  Speaking,  the  act  of  furnishing  an  outward  pic- 
ture of  the  inner  mind,  is  based  on  perception,  memory, 
imagination,  and  reason.  To  assimilate  these  powers  suf- 
ficently  to  produce  the  understanding  and  cultivation  of 
truth,  is  a  long  process.  Preyer  showed  by  facts  that 
in  spite  of  the  lack  of  such  abstract  understanding,  con- 
scious obedience,  truthfulness,  and  resistance  to  tempta- 
tion were  practiced  by  his  boy  in  saying  to  himself, 
"Be  brave." 

This  proves  not  only  the  natural  inclination  to  right- 
eousness, so  much  recognized  in  our  kindergartens, 
but  the  power  of  an  early  direction  without  the  use 
of  language.  This  possibility  has  been  otherwise  most 
successfully  demonstrated  by  the  thoughtful  conduct  of 
a  befriended  family.  The  child  was  led  to  live  with 
and  in  the  sympathy  of  his  parents.  The  withhold- 
ing of  this  sympathy  was  used  educationally.  A  sim- 
ple shaking  of  the  head,  with  an  earnest  expression, 
was  at  once  recognized  by  the  child  in  its  directive 
meaning,  and  he  respected  it.  And  so  well  was  the 
meaning  understood  that  he  began  to  use  the  same 
means,  which,  whenever  possible,  were  most  gracefully 
respected   on   the  side   of  the   parents.      Why   can   we 


CULTIVATION   OF    THE   MIND.  217 

not    keep  this    natural    condition    between   parent    and 
child? 

Because  we  destroy  their  faith  in  us,  which  reciprocally 
affects  their  faith  in  themselves.  The  child  that  comes  to 
the  kindergarten  has  often  already  lost  its  garment  of 
purity  and  innocence ;  this  garment  has  been  torn  from 
him  in  a  thousand  little  pieces  by  the  same  authori- 
ties who,  in  after  life,  will  blame  him  for  what  he  is 
through  their  own  fault.  There  is  one  great  unavoidable 
danger  :  that  is,  as  I  have"  said  already  in  other  places,  the 
contradiction  between  the  real  and  the  fanciful  conception 
of  things,  while  we  consider  both  essential.  It  will  remain 
forever  a  great  educational  stumbling-stone,  especially 
when  dealing  with  a  child  whose  imaginative  powers 
carry  it  so  far  that  it  becomes  unable  to  decide  what  is 
real  and  what  is  not.  The  child  may  outgrow  this  period 
without  ever  becoming  aware  of  the  abyss  on  which  it 
stood,  and  it  is,  best  it  should  do  so.  I  remember  two 
beautiful  children  of  a  very  conscientious,  thoughtful 
mother,  who  were  taught  to  make  a  discrimination  be- 
tween a  really  true  story  and  one  not  true.  It  is 
certain  that  nothing  affects  a  child  more  lastingly  than 
what  the  mother  teaches  by  her  own  language.  A 
pious,  reverend  mother  will  have  the  power  to  lift 
her  darling  up  to  the  higher  spiritual  regions,  while 
mothers  of  the  restless  spirit  of  this  day,  having  no 
time  for  themselves,  will  hardly  feel  the  moral  and 
spiritual   starvation   under  which  they  carry,  from  day 


218  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

to  day,  to  a  moral  destruction,  man's  highest  gift, — a 
child ! 


IV.    CULTIVATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE  FOR  ORIGINAL 

LANGUAGE. 

While  singing  is  recognized  as  man's  highest  power  of 
expression,  original  language,  reflecting  creative  human 
thoughts,  stands  still  higher.  As  stated  before,  the  de* 
sire  to  condense  every  thought  into  a  nutshell,  leaving 
very  little  chance  for  a  broadening  and  modulation  of 
expression,  may  become  dangerous.  No.  one  can  be  op- 
posed to  a  condensation  of  thought ;  but  on  the  contrary, 
too  much  condensation  seems  dangerous  in  the  daily  in- 
tercourse of  our  homes.  Monotony  of  expression  and 
poverty  of  language  detract  materially  from  the  freshness 
of  our  homes,  while  originality  of  language,  like  flint 
and  steel,  throws  its  sparks  of  light  and  life  over  the 
many  weary  and  dreary  hours  which  come  to  us.  The 
strictness  with  which  all  that  is  not  common  in  our  every- 
day speech  is  excluded  from  familiar  conversation  pro- 
duces a  deadening  effect  upon  a  thousand  smouldering 
fires,  which  need  only  one  touch  of  inspiration  to  burst 
forth  in  everlasting  flames,  to  warm,  to  lighten,  and  to 
brighten  human  existence.  It  should  not  be  a  crime 
to  be  odd.  On  the  contrary,  originality  of  language 
and  originality  in  action  should  be  fostered  by  the  genius 
of  the  age  in  all  lands. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  SELFHOOD. 
I.    Sacredness  of  the  Body.  —  II.    Spirituality  in  Selfhood. 
I.    SACREDNESS   OF  THE  BODY. 

No  other  nation  is  to  be  compared  with  the  American 
in  the  care  bestowed  upon  the  body.  Untouched  by  the 
remnants  of  religious  fanaticism  in  which  the  idea  of  self- 
abnegation  to  God  forbade  cleanliness,  the  care  of  the 
body  in  America  has  become  a  culte  of  the  body.  Clean- 
liness and  tidiness  of  the  body  and  its  outer  garment,  the 
habit  of  living,  the  way  of  carrying  the  body,  equality 
between  the  position  of  the  directing  and  submitting 
forces  in  this  country,  each  and  all  show  a  clear  per- 
ception of  self-respect. 

Self  respect  has  become  an  educator  of  national  virtues. 
But  in  what  manner?  Is  it  wholly  or  mainly  subordi- 
nated to  improvement  of  the  outer  appearance  ?  On  the 
contrary,  does  not  the  use  of  the  body  predominate  in  its 
sacred  functions  over  its  appearance  ?  The  Greeks  culti- 
vated their  bodies  in  the  interest  of  the  state,  submitting 
them  as  vessels,  to  carry  moral,  natural  perfection  from 
generation  to  generation. 

This  conception  has  changed.     Higher  morality  on  the 


220  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

basis  of  religious  or  humanitarian  principles  is  left  to  free 
individual  efforts,  so  far  as  it  does  not  contradict  the  law. 
Consequently,  the  use  or  abuse  of  the  body,  except  under 
said  conditions,  is  free! 

We  have  repeatedly  referred  to  the  necessity  for  a  lim- 
itation in  this  direction.  We  have  called  on  the  mother 
and  her  influence  to  create  laws  where  traditional  habits 
have  blinded  the  social  eye  from  seeing  the  serpent  hid- 
den under  the  flowers. 

The  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  is  lifting 
with  its  dainty  lady  fingers  the  moral  boa-constrictor, 
which  coils  with  its  deadening  poison  around  the  globe. 

Josephine  Butler,  and  with  her  an  army  of  noble  men 
and  women,  are  trying  to  free  man  from  his  lower  self 
by  lessening  his  temptations. 

In  America,  Elizabeth  P.  Peabody,  and  in  Europe,  the 
Baroness  von  Mahrenholz-Buelow,  have  kindled  the  inspi- 
ration of  thousands  to  work  devotedly  for  the  earliest 
education  and  the  sacredness  of  childhood. 

Florence  Nightingale  has  thrown  new  light  on  the 
practical  adjustment  of  the  relation  .between  man  and 
man,  by  pouring  out  high-born  sister  love  in  the  service 
of  ivomen  to  men. 

Each  and  all  of  these  heroines  in  the  battle-field  against 
traditional  habits  have  gained  a  victory  in  the  formation  of 
new  laws,  —  laws  to  protect  marts  better  self  Do  they 
embrace  the  whole  number  of  those  laws  necessary  to 
protect  man's  better  self  f 


SACREDNESS    OF    THE    BODY.  221 

By  no  means  !  For  instance,  that  law  has  not  yet  been 
gained,  which  has  been  demanded  for  more  than  twenty 
years  by  its  stalwart  advocates  and  friends,  for  the  grant- 
ing of  mothers'  natural  rights,  and  the  free  fulfillment  of 
her  motherly  duties.  Our  hospitals,  our  asylums,  our 
prisons,  our  pulpits,  our  schools,  our  arts  and  sciences, 
and  our  workshops  are  influenced  by  women.  What  a 
vast  field  for  womanly  influence  to  protect  man's  better 
self! 

But  what  can  be  expected,  if  this  does  not  originate 
and  develop  itself  in  the  home,  in  the  union  of  a  higher 
parenthood  ?  Here,  at  the  root  of  the  root,  the  sacredness 
of  the  body  has  to  be  written  every  day  anew,  by  words, 
by  deeds,  and  especially  by  examples.  Here  the  body 
has  to  be  regarded  as  the  vessel  for  holding  and  per- 
fecting the  creative  powers  of  coming  generations. 

No  senseless  vagueness  should  guide  the  coming  men 
and  women  in  their  wTonderful  earthly  mission  as  the  com- 
ing fathers  and  mothers.  There  are  ample  means  to  abol- 
ish this  vagueness  by  instilling  truth.  For  instance,  the 
insight  into  the  development  of  a  beautiful  flower,  in  its 
gradual  typical  perfection,  to  become  a  mother  (see  "Aunt 
Emma's  Botany"),  in  all  its  details  and  parts  of  growth; 
also  the  hereditary  influence  of  insanity,  idiocy,  and 
drunkenness.  Bodily  health,  bodily  vigor,  bodily  beauty, 
should  from  the  beginning  be  recognized  by  the  child  as 
superior  gifts  toward  the  fulfillment  of  this  mission.  All 
efforts   to  perfect  these  gifts   should  serve  as  means  to 


222  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

understand  their  value  for  higher  purposes  as  a  part  of 
the  whole.  The  time  is  not  very  far  distant  when  a 
sickly  body  will  no  longer  be  regarded  as  a  misfortune 
(this  does  not  refer  to  passing  common  maladies),  but  as 
resulting  from  a  neglect  of  self-knowledge  and  self- 
control  ;  a  neglect  of  higher  religious  and  moral  obliga- 
tions by  ignoring  "  the  sacredness  of  the  body." 


II.    SPIRITUALITY    OF   SELFHOOD. 

Man  will  never  realize  the  progress  in  self-improve- 
ment of  which  he  is  capable,  until  he  discovers  the  laws 
by  which  he  has  become  what  he  is,  and  uses  the  knowl- 
edge according  to  principles  and  methods,  in  order 
to  make  himself  what  he  can  be.  With  this  truth,  we 
stand  in  the  open  thoroughfare  of  life,  following  the 
stream  of  idle  passers-by.  The  marvelous  combination 
of  bodily  and  spiritual  powers  strikes  us  with  equal 
force  in  the  careless  smiling  of  the  baby  in  its  mother's 
arms  and  in  the  solemn  lines  inscribed  on  the  tombstone 
of  a  great  thinker. 

As  the  wondering  baby,  who  seeks  to  know  if  the 
hand  it  grasps  is  "  his  own,  or  not,"  we  too  are  all  seek- 
ing to  know  "what  is  our  own,  what  not." 

The  foregoing  feeble  attempt  has  been  directed  to 
awaken  a  desire  for  the  solution  of  this  great  question. 

The  wonderful  book  of  Preyer,  which  conducts  us  with 
deep  reverence  through  the  workshop  of  humanity,  show- 


SPIRITUALITY   OF   SELFHOOD.  223 

ing  the  unity  of  physical  and  spiritual  powers,  has  been 
given  in  abstracts  to  meet  this  purpose.  It  cannot  be 
doubted  that  the  knowledge  so  gained  will  bear  fruit  in 
leading  to  self-knowledge.  Among  the  Greeks,  bravery 
and  generosity  were  the  two  virtues  indispensable  to  the 
"free  man." 

Spirituality  in  selfhood  represents  the  unity  of  man's 
inborn  forces  concentrated  in  thoughts,  aims,  and  actions, 
in  his  relation  to  God,  himself,  and  others,  which  leads  to 
the  study  of  and  submission  to  law,  the  same  for  all. 

Over  two  thousand  years  have  passed  since  the  Greeks 
attributed  the  highest  virtues  only  to  the  "free-born 
man"  Over  two  thousand  years,  and  the  women  to 
whose  hands  we  trust,  as  mothers  and  educators,  every 
newly  born  child  to  develop  its  spirituality  in  selfhood, 
though  living  under  the  highest  aspects  of  civilization, 
are  still  unfree ;  for  they  are  not  legally  recognized  as 
independent  and  responsible  to  their  own  children.  It 
has  been  with  deep  emotion  that  the  writer  has  referred 
to  the  increase  of  crime  and  its  associates,  insanity  and 
idiocy,  the  accounts  of  which  fill  our  medical  journals. 
Daily  knowledge,  gained  by  earnest  researches,  tells  that 
even  the  advanced  age  of  parents,  in  many  cases,  be- 
comes injurious  to  the  moral  constitution  of  man,  while 
inherited  vanity  and  the  desire  for  possession  produce  a 
large  contingent  of  criminal  victims. 

While  we  might  excuse  willful  disobedience  to  wise 
laws,  we  cannot  in  our  day  excuse  ignorance! 


224  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

But  as  otherwise  the  whole  structure  of  spiritual 
selfhood  is  based  on  the  knowledge  of  the  sciences  and 
natural  laws  pertaining  to  man,  and  as  this  knowledge, 
again,  is  decidedly  necessary  for  that  untiy  in  parenthood 
without  which  the  development  of  spiritual  selfhood  can- 
not be  completed,  we  request  once  more,  in  the  interest 
of  the  nation  and  the  human  race,  the  granting  to  both 
sexes  that  preparation  for  fatherhood  and  motherhood, 
of  which  we  have  spoken  before  in  our  formal  petition, 
repeating :  — 

Not  until  the  science  of  life  and  man  is  equally 
understood  by  men  as  well  as  by  women; 

JVbt  until  this  understanding  brings  equal  weight  of 
responsibility  to  men  as  well  as  to  women; 

Not  until  the  preparation  for  fatherhood  and  mother- 
hood forms  a  lasting  curriculum  in  our  higher  school 
instruction  and  in  our  universities,  can  we  expect  a 
sound  and  lasting  progress  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  IDEAL  NUBSEBT. 

1.  Nurseries  to  be  built  and  arranged  on  Purpose.  —  II.  Children's  Toys.  — 
III.  Children's  Stories.  —  IV.  Children's  Picture  Books.  —  V.  Home 
Labor  in  Common. —  VI.  Home  Festivals.  —  VII.  E.  Marwedel's 
Circular  Sewing,  Drawing,  and  Paper  Cutting.  Kindergarten  Sug- 
gestions. -  VIII.  The  Sand  Table.  —  IX.  The  Dolls.  —  X.  Friday, 
the  Day  in  Common.  —  XI.  How  Botany  is  played  in  the  Nursery 
and  Kindergarten.  —  XII.  A  Programme  and  the  Method  of  Devel- 
opment used  at  E.  Marwedel's  Kindergarten  and  School. 

Having  been  for  years  requested  by  Miss  E.  P. 
Pea  body  and  others  to  give  an  insight  into  my  real 
living  with  young  children  for  the  purpose  of  leading 
and  assisting  them  in  gaining  fundamental  knowledge  by 
self -instruction,  I  have  at  last  consented  to  do  so,  and  the 
following  pages  picture  a  few  such  hours  spent  with  the 
children.  They  are  true  pictures,  but  they  lack  life ; 
they  are  only  hints,  and  will  remain  lifeless  till  they 
are  re-created  by  a  spontaneous  and  original  conception. 

I.    NURSERIES    TO     BE    BUILT    AND     ARRANGED     ON 

PURPOSE. 

Mamma  said  nurseries  were  not  built  for  the  children, 
but  they  would  be,  if  mammas  would  make  the  plans  of 
houses.  So  we  at  once  planned  one,  and  made  a  story 
of  it.  It  is  the  biggest  and  sunniest  room  on  the  lower 
floor   in   the   house.     Our   hall   and   the   nursery    make 


226  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

one  room,  only  divided  by  a  large  folding  door ;  so 
in  winter,  when  we  cannot  go  out  of  doors,  mamma 
opens  it,  and  we  have  just  as  good  a  run  as  if  we  were 
out  of  doors,  and  while  we  are  in  the  hall  she  has  all 
the  windows  opened.  In  the  hall,  we  have  in  winter 
our  bar  and  the  rack  and  hand  swing,  and  a  jumping 
pole.  The  large  folding  door  we  can  use  for  bouncing 
the  ball.  On  one  side  is  our  cabinet  of  shells  and 
pebbles,  which  were  washed  around  by  water.  We 
found  them  on  the  beach  last  summer,  with  papa  and 
mamma.  And  do  you  see  the  beautiful  brown  branches 
on  the  wall,  with  the  nest  in  them?  That  is  from  a  man- 
zenita-tree.  Then  you  see  the  hickory,  the  redwood,  and 
laurel.  Uncle  sent  us  some  beautiful  orange-wood,  —  it 
is  light  yellow, —  also  chestnut  and  walnut;  he  left  one 
side  with  the  bark  on,  so  that  we  might  see  what  kind  of 
dress  or  skin  the  trees  wear,  —  each  one  different.  And 
when  grandpa  came  he  said  he  would  give  us  a  surprise. 
And  on  Sunday  morning  we  found  all  the  pieces  of 
wood  nicely  cut,  the  name  of  the  wood  written  on  it, 
and  one  end  polished,  so  that  we  might  see  how  the  sap 
and  the  strings  or  threads  (they  call  it  fibers)  grow 
together,  sometimes  making  beautiful  patterns.  But  of 
some  kinds  we  have  two  pieces,  and  we  want  to  send 
some  to  our  cousins,  who  have  very  different  trees  in 
their  country. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  cabinet  mamma  has  placed  her 
own  pressed  flowers,  which  she  gathered  when  she  was 
a  little  girl.     On  some  of  the  pages  she   pasted  all   the 


NURSERIES    TO    BE    BUILT.  227 

round  leaves  she  could  find,  then  those  a  little  longer, 
and  longer  still,  till  they  became  like  blades  of  grass. 
And  she  did  the  same  with  the  flowers.  First,  she  took 
those  with  four  parts  (petals,  they  call  them),  then  those 
of  five,  then  six  and  eight  parts,  etc.  And  grandma 
has  written  on  each  page  where  her  little  girl,  who  is 
now  our  big  mamma,  picked  all  the  leaves  and  flowers. 
So  in  the  evening  mamma  takes  baby  on  her  lap,  and 
then  she  tells  us  such  nice  stories,  about  where  she 
picked  the  leaves  and  flowers.  She  has  also  another 
book,  in  which,  when  a  little  older,  she  drew  the  out- 
lines of  the  leaves,  and  there  we  found  grandpa's  name 
when  they  were  well  done  ;  and  sometimes  it  could  be 
read  that  he  gave  her  ten  cents  to  buy  a  birthday  present 
for  Henry,  who  is  now  our  uncle.  And  mamma  often 
remembers  what  she  bought,  and  how  she  spent  the  day. 
Papa  has  promised  each  of  us  children  such  books  as 
birthday  presents. 

Our  nursery,  which  mamma  says  is  lovelier  than  ten 
parlors  put  together,  opens  into  the  garden,  and  includes 
the  hall,  which  opens  into  the  street.  The  lawn  comes 
up  to  the  window  ;  the  trees  are  a  little  farther  down, 
so  we  hear  the  birdies  sing,  and  see  them  build  their 
nests. 

In  the  nursery  are  two  big  bow-windows,  on  each  side 
of  a  large  folding  door ;  in  one  of  them  is  our  winter 
flower  garden,  of  which  we  children  take  care.  The  ivy 
grows  all  around  the  window ;  the  heliotrope,  the  roses, 
the  violets,  and  the  mignonette,  when  in  full  bloom,  make 


228  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

a  real  garden,  giving  sweet  odor  by  opening  the  windows. 
And  there  are  two  little  green  frogs  in  it. 

On  the  other  side,  in  the  bow-window  are  many  little 
birdies,  a  gray  squirrel,  and  two  little  brown  mice,  all 
living  and  playing  together.  The  birdies  lay  eggs  in  the 
spring,  and  have  little  ones,  and  so  tame  are  they  that 
they  go  sometimes  on  the  other  side  of  the  bow-window 
into  their  garden,  as  we  call  it.  At  the  bottom  we  have 
some  fishes  in  a  little  pond.  But  in  the  summer  papa 
has  a  large  cage  and  an  aquarium  under  the  trees.  Some 
animals  in  the  salt  water  cannot  walk ;  they  are  fastened 
like  a  flower  on  a  rock ;  so  Aunt  Emma  calls  them  the 
living  flowers  under  water.  Evenings,  at  dusk,  when 
mamma  and  papa  sing  with  us,  —  papa  sings,  and  mamma 
plays  on  the  piano,  —  we  open  the  inner  windows,  and 
Willie  says  the  little  birdies  and  squirrels  listen  just  as 
well  to  the  music  as  Nero,  who  insists  on  coming  in  ;  also 
gray  Bambino,  the  cat,  which  got  a  little  red  ribbon  and 
a  bell  for  Christmas.  And  Lulu,  the  little  canary  bird, 
always  sits  on  mamma's  shoulder  when  she  plays. 

The  piano  is  in  the  nursery  ;  mamma  says  it  was  the 
very  place  where  it  should  be,. if  there  was  only  one  in 
the  house.  When  baby  is  a  little  fretful,  and  cannot 
sleep,  mamma  at  once  plays  him  to  sleep,  and  then  he 
looks  so  sweet. 

You  cannot  think  how  proud  mamma  is  of  her  nursery 
library.  It  is  a  beautiful  book-case,  and  you  can  find 
the  pattern  of  all  our  furniture  in  Gothic  style  in  Aunt 
Emma's  paper-cutting  book  for  bigger  boys  and  girls,  in 


NURSERIES   TO   BE    BUILT.  229 

the  second  volume  on  Kindergarten.  Every  new  book 
papa  can  find  he  buys  for  mamma,  and  then  they  read 
it  together.  In  the  middle  of  the  room  we  have  the  big 
table,  and  here  we  play  our  color  plays,  our  ball  plays ; 
and  sometimes,  when  we  have  been  very  good,  papa 
plays  with  us,  and  that  we  like  ever  so  much.  On  our 
birthdays,  grandma  and  grandpa  join  in  too. 

And  look,  this  is  baby's  corner  !  You  don't  know  what 
that  means.  It  is  a  mattress.  It  can  be  folded  together, 
and  carried  into  the  garden,  the  yard,  and  into  the  parlor. 
The  parts  are  hinged  together,  and  it  is  so  light  that  one 
can  carry  it  from  a  loop  very  easily.  There  is  a  kind  of 
railing  around  it,  with  a  door,  to  keep  baby  from  falling 
off.  Besides,  it  can  hold  on  to  it  when  it  begins  to  walk. 
Do  you  see  the  little  plates  fastened  to  the  railing? 
Those  are  baby's  instruments,  upon  which  it  develops  its 
sense  of  hearing.  They  are  made  of  glass,  of  porcelain, 
of  w©od,  of  pasteboard,  of  iron,  of  tin,  etc.  Baby  takes 
its  spoon  or  its  balls  to  touch  them,  and  you  should  see 
its  astonished  face,  hearing  the  different  sounds.  Aunt 
Emma  says  papa  has  a  patent  on  it. 

It  keeps  all  its  playthings  in  one  corner ;  a  hole  is 
made  in  the  mattress  for  that  purpose.  In  this  hole  it 
puts  its  little  balls  and  rings,  and  takes  them  out  again, 
for  hours,  and  it  is  never  taken  away  by  the  nurse  until 
all  its  toys  are  in  the  hole.  For  the  animals,  baby  has 
a  little  stable,  and  for  the  play  apples  and  peaches  is  a 
little  basket  hanging  in  one  corner.  The  door  is  opened 
when  papa  and  mamma  or  the  nurse  and  the  children 


230  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

want  to  play  with  the  baby,  and  then  it  has  a  splendid 
time.  Sometimes  mamma  puts  a  sheet  of  paper  on  the 
mattress,  giving  baby  some  gravel  or  sand  and  flowers, 
and  it  fills  little  cups  or  dishes  with  it. 

The  walls  of  the  room  are  made  of  oiled  wood,  so 
that  we  can  toss  the  balls  and  bean-bags  against  them. 
Mamma  wanted  the  floor  made  of  cork  ;  she  does  not  like 
carpets,  and  she  does  not  like  the  wooden  floor.  I  told 
her  we  had  "  over-all "  at  the  kindergarten.  We  have  some 
rugs  we  can  take  from  one  place  to  another  to  sit  on, 
and  the  floor  is  of  oiled  wood,  but  papa  has  a  double 
floor,  as  at  the  kindergarten,  that  gives  less  noise.  Each 
one  of  us  has  a  little  upholstered  footstool,  which  we  take 
all  through  the  room.  Mamma  and  papa,  of  course,  have 
a  rocking-chair;  and  one  is  for  grandma,  grandpa,  and 
for  nurse.  They  all  like  to  come  into  the  nursery,  and 
stay  with  us  till  we  go  to  bed. 

In  her  nursery  library,  mamma  has  lots  of  books  for 
us.  She  never  allows  us  to  read  a  book  before  it  has 
been  read  by  herself  or  papa.  At  the  bottom  of  the 
library  are  our  picture  books.  A  great  many  of  them 
are  pasted  on  a  long  piece  of  linen,  folded  backward  and 
forward,  so  that  when  we  want  to  look  at  them,  we  lay 
them  down  on  the  floor.  They  are  all  labeled,  so  we 
know  what  is  in  the  books.  Some  have  animals,  some 
show  us  the  temples  and  houses  of  the  beautiful  Greeks, 
and  some  make  us  laugh,  and  we  always  take  these  out 
when  papa  and  Cousin  Harry  come. 

Our  playthings  are  in  a  closet  with  some  drawers  and 


NURSERIES   TO   BE    BUILT.  231 

shelves,  and  each  of  the  children  has  its  own  part  to  take 
care  of.  In  one  corner  of  the  nursery  is  the  birthday 
table.  When  a  birthday  occurs  in  the  house  (we  always 
know,  because  mamma  wrote  the  dates  on  a  piece  of 
paper),  we  take  a  large  white  napkin,  to  be  spread  over 
the  table,  then  we  get  flowers  or  green  leaves  and  lay  a 
garland  around  it.  The  cook  or  mamma  always  bakes 
a  nice  cake,  to  be  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  table  with 
some  other  little  presents.  Willie  had  a  ruler  and  pen- 
wiper last  week,  and  some  bouquets.  We  lay  them  all 
around  the  cake,  and  in  the  afternoon  grandma  and 
grandpa  come.  And  grandpa  says,  when  he  sits  in  that 
big  rocking-chair  which  belongs  to  7iim9  that  he  never 
feels  so  happy  as  when  in  our  nursery.  "The  sun  shines 
so  warm  and  bright,"  he  says,  "the  flowers  are  so  fra- 
grant, the  birds  sing  so  sweetly,  the  children  are  so  good 
and  happy,  and  mamma  and  papa  love  each  other  so 
dearly,  that  I  do  not  know  what  I  could  wish  more." 

Papa  tries  to  come  earlier  on  the  birthdays.  The  cake 
is  carried  into  the  dining-room,  and  all  drink  some  lemon- 
ade, or,  in  winter,  some  chocolate.  Sometimes  we  have 
a  whole  party  on  the  lawn,  and  our  little  cousins  are 
invited.  But  on  grandpa's  and  grandma's  birthdays  we 
go  over  to  their  home,  and  we  take  presents  to  them  and 
repeat  nice  verses.  On  mamma's  birthday,  papa  always 
has  some  nice  surprise  (last  time  we  all  went  on  an 
excursion)  ;  everything  was  prepared  secretly  by  papa 
and  the  cook,  who  went  with  us  too.     So  mamma  had  no 


232  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

trouble  at  all,  but  "to  fold  her  hands  and  rest,"  as  papa 
said.  On  papa's  birthday,  mamma  had  made  us  all  some 
new  suits,  such  as  papa  liked  so  much  on  our  cousins, 
but  thought  he  could  not  afford  them.  Mamma,  who  has 
her  fixed  money  for  housekeeping,  had  saved,  with  the 
cook's  assistance,  all  she  could,  and  nurse  helped  to  make 
the  dresses.  At  last  mamma  had  all  the  money  but  three 
dollars.  So  she  begged  one  from  grandma,  one  from 
grandpa,  and  one  from  papa,  toward  his  own  birthday 
present.  That  was  a  big  joke,  papa  said,  and  we  all 
laughed  very  much ;  and  papa  said,  next  time  he  would 
lock  up  the  sewing  machine,  because  mamma  and  nurse 
worked  too  hard. 

Mamma's  sitting-room  is  next  to  the  nursery,  and 
when  she  leaves  the  door  open  she  can  hear  all  that  is 
spoken  there.  Papa  and  mamma  are  always  the  first 
at  breakfast,  sitting  at  the  table  ;  then  we  children  go  in, 
to  give  papa  and  mamma  a  kiss,  saying,  "  Good  morn-* 
ing,"  before  we  sit  down.  Morris  makes  little  bouquets 
sometimes,  and  places  them  under  the  napkins,  espe- 
cially when  grandma  is  there.  Even  baby  does  it  with 
its  nurse. 

One  day,  grandma  said  she  would  tell  us  how  she 
did  when  mamma  was  a  little  girl.  On  some  Satur- 
day she  wanted  to  take  her  three  little  girls  out  quite 
early ;  but  much  work  had  to  be  done  on  Saturday,  and 
grandma  had  to  help.  So  she  asked  her  three  little 
girls  if  they  would  not  give  their  help,  that  they  might 


NURSERIES   TO   BE    BUILT.  233 

be  ready  an  hour  earlier.  "Mamma,  we  are  only  too 
delighted  to  help  you,"  they  said.  So  grandma  made 
three  little  white  caps,  and  three  little  white  aprons, 
just  like  grandma's.  She  bought  three  little  brooms, 
three  dust-pans  and  brushes,  and  each  hemmed  six  little 
dusters  ;  so  they  were  ready  to  begin  to  sweep,  to  clean, 
and  to  dust,  and  mamma  taught  them  a  little  sweeping 
song.  One  day,  when  they  were  all  dusting  and  sing- 
ing in  the  parlor  and  in  the  hall,  grandpa  came  in. 
First,  he  could  not  speak  at  all,  he  was  so  surprised; 
then  he  took  mamma  in  his  broad  arms  and  hugged 
her  and  kissed  her,  and  lifted  up  each  of  his  little  girls 
with  a  kiss,  and  said,  "he  had  the  sweetest  family  in 
the  land,"  and  his  little  wife  was  the  best  that  ever  lived. 
But  another  day,  when  he  came  again  and  found 
them  all  sitting  in  the  garden  opening  peas,  and  the 
cat  and  dogs  around  them,  he  said  he  must  have  them 
with  their  little  caps  in  a  picture ;  and  so  the  large 
photograph,  which  is  still  in  grandma's  parlor,  was 
taken.  And  that  little  girl  is  our  own  dear  mamma. 
She  had  her  cap  and  apron  still  kept,  often  saying  to 
papa  —  so  that  the  children  heard  it — that  she  would 
try  to  give  her  children  the  same  pleasure  of  working, 
when  they  were  a  little  older.1 

'A  lady  in  Oakland,  who  had  her  three  little  girls  at  the  writer's 
kindergarten,  has  made  a  beautiful  arrangement  with  her  three  young 
daughters,  still  going  to  school.  Her  chambermaid  is  given  up,  and 
they  take  her  place ;  the  daughters  wait  in  turn  at  the  table,  and  have 


234  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 


IL     CHILDREN'S   TOYS. 


Toys  are  the  child's  first  hieroglyphic  language  of 
life.  They  speak  in  sentences  instead  of  words,  grow- 
ing in  fullness  and  richness  of  color  with  its  own  growth 
within.  They  serve  in  all  languages  as  the  true  inter- 
preter of  human  knowledge  and  human  feelings.  Place 
the  child  in  the  center  of  this  hieroglyphic  sign-lan- 
guage, and  you  lead  it  onward  to  the  height  of  its 
nature,  or  it  glides  toward  its  own  steady  downfall. 
Compare  the  graceful  gymnastics  among  the  Greeks 
with  the  sling-shot  of  our  boys. 

What  a  nullification  of  earthly  existence,  without  these 
toys  in  a  child's  life  !  No  joy  so  high,  no  grief  so  deep, 
no  sentiment  so  noble,  no  hope,  no  faith,  no  love  so 
great  that  the  child  could  not  connect  it  with  its  doll, 
whether  it  be  of  rags,  velvets,  or  silks :  it  is  his  or 
her  own ;  something  it  can  give  away  graciously  or  keep 
to  itself.  It  is  her  first  responsible  connection  with 
the  outer  world,  —  motherly  care,  motherly  pride,  moth- 
erly happiness, — the  frame- work  of  early  preparatory 
duties,  such  as  order,  tidiness,  cleanliness,  faithfulness, 
kindness,  and  care.  Toys  are  the  reflectors  of  imagina- 
tive,   creative    powers   within   the    child,    opening   wide 

the  care  of  the  baby  after  school  hours;  they  also  do  the  darning. 
The  mother  speaks  of  the  increase  in  high  moral  tone  and  improve- 
ment in  their  studies  as  wonderful.  They  have  ample  means,  and  the 
arrangement  is  based  on  purely  educational  principles. 


children's  toys.  235 

dreamland  avenues,  on  which  the  embryo  artist  and  the 
practical  navigator  stand  hand  in  hand  with  the  daily 
laborer,  to  ripen  in  strength  and  knowledge  for  the  battle 
of  life.  It  is  the  rich  and  the  poor  boy  lading  their 
ships,  with  the  sails  blowing  and  the  flags  waving,  with 
all  the  treasures  their  mind  can  grasp,  in  spite  of  one 
being  a  self-whittled  block  of  wood,  and  the  other  a  bit  of 
elegantly  manufactured  ware.  It  is  the  sickly,  the  lame 
child  that  has  her  garden,  the  richest,  the  most  beautiful 
and  the  largest  that  can  exist,  condensed  in  one  tiny 
flower-pot.  It  is  the  same  little  girl  traveling  with  her 
doll  carriage  day  by  day  on  those  unforgotten  green  bor- 
ders of  those  deep  blue  lakes  she  once  saw  in  full  spring 
bloom,  when  papa  was  with  her,  and  they  were  rich.  It 
is  the  lonesome  little  daughter  opening  her  tiny  dining- 
room  to  the  many  little  playmates  she  is  longing  for  in 
vain.  How  busy  she  is,  roasting  and  baking  the  few 
sweets  and  crumbs  allotted  to  her ;  how*  painfully  attend- 
ing her  hostess  duties  toward  her  valued  company  of 
paper  dolls  (which  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every  little 
girl,  with  plenty  of  material  to  make  the  different  articles 
of  the  necessary  wardrobe,  not  forgetting  the  scissors,  the 
paste,  the  pencils,  and  the  encouraging  helping  hand 
and  words  of  the  elders)  !  How  she  remembers  the 
courtesy  of  her  mother,  the  responsibilities  of  the  cook, 
both  having  fallen  on  her  shoulders  to-day  !  To  accom- 
plish this,  the  simplest  representation  of  the  idea  was 
sufficient,  and  the   $300  spent  by  the  Nebraska  man  at 


236  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Chicago  for  the  outfit  of  his  daughter's  doll  did  not  fur- 
nish  an  atom  of  higher  child's  pleasure  to  her  than  the 
rag  doll  of  some  one's  poor  darling.  Who  wonders  at  the 
small  child's  liking  for  small  things?  Common-sense 
dictates  their  sizes  by  the  fitness  of  its  little  hand  to  hold 
and  handle  its  treasures.  How  different  with  the  larger 
children !  Their  steamboats,  steam  cars,  carriages, 
horses,  kitchens,  doll-houses  with  furniture,  have  almost 
every  size,  yet  none  of  them  are  based  on  a  compara- 
tive measurement. 

The  objects  mentioned,  capable  of  being  instructive, 
are  all  that  can  be  desired,  with  the  exception  of  compar- 
ative measurement.  Introducing  from  the  beginning  a 
comparative  measurement,  for  instance,  an  inch  to  a  foot, 
or  one  tenth  of  a  meter,  or  even  half  an  inch  to  a  foot, 
in  all  children's  toys,  the  child  would  from  the  start 
overcome  the  existing  vagueness  of  impressions  in  meas- 
urement, learning  practically  to  detect  the  monstrosities 
in  art,  even  the  common  exaggerations  in  words  and 
actions.  Moreover,  this  early  conception  of  exactness 
and  truth  would  furnish  our  children  with  a  moral  train- 
ing that  cannot  be  over-estimated.  We  find  some  imita- 
tions of  porcelain  animals,  almost  perfect  concerning  their 
artistic  conception  as  family  groups  (the  writer  refers  to 
one  special  kind),  but  as  to  their  relative  size,  between 
the  mother  and  the  young,  they  are  in  great  dispropor- 
tion. Insects  should  either  be  made  life  size  or  they 
should  be  enlarged.     The  writer  observed  a  toy  called  an 


children's  toys.  237 

aquarium,  the  animals  being  very  well  executed,  but  as 
the  crab  was  of  an  equal  size  with  the  whale,  it  seemed  to 
the  conscientious  teacher  impossible  to  use  them.  The 
toy  stores  have  some  rubber  birds  of  life  size,  of  French 
make,  answering  fully  the  artistic  details  and  refined  finish 
of  French  goods.  A  few  of  these  birds,  a  good  imitation 
of  a  mouse,  a  frog,  a  butterfly,  and  a  caterpillar,  all  of 
life  size,  in  connection  with  the  handling  of  the  domestic 
pets,  would  suffice  to  direct  the  child's  attention  to  the 
differences  of  animal  construction,  and  their  modes  of 
life.  A  little  girl  between  the  first  and  second  years  was 
presented  with  one  of  these  elephants,  made  of  gray 
cloth,  to  which  the  child  could  not  be  induced  to  pay 
attention.  One  day  it  was  taken  to  a  circus,  in  which  an 
elephant  played  an  important  part  of  general  amusement. 
As  soon  as  the  baby  went  home  it  searched  for  the  de- 
spised elephant,  lying  in  a  corner,  caressing  it,  making 
the  elephant  its  most  beloved  toy,  not  willing  to  part 
with  it,  not  even  at  night.  It  was  evidently  the  connec- 
tion of  ideas,  and  the  pleasure,  the  life-giving  element, 
that  changed  the  opinion  of  the  child. 

Fortunately  and  i^ifortunately,  the  prices  of  children's 
toys  meet  in  their  extremes.  A  dressed  doll  for  from  five 
to  twenty-five  cents  is  too  cheap.  "  Too  cheap,"  because 
the  child  should  learn  to  dress  her  little  doll  herself,  in 
which  she  would  delight  if  animated  by  some  older  per- 
sons, instead  of  being  constantly  told  that  it  was  not 
worth  while  to  dress  it  when  it  could  be  bought  so  cheap, 


238  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

utterly  ignoring  the  interest  of  the  child  by  non-develop- 
ment of  skill,  domestic  habits,  and  higher  pleasure. 
"  Too  cheap,"  furthermore,  in  leading  the  child  to  ignore 
in  the  cheap  object  the  obligation  of  care  and  saving,  con- 
stantly reaching  out  for  new  changes  and  new  desires. 
And  even  here  we  meet  again  our  children's  fate,  "  ready 
made."  Our  dolls  and  nearly  all  our  toys  are  completed 
(except  those  derived  from  Froebel's  method),  with 
eyes  that  open,  a  mock  imitation  of  the  human  voice, 
the  mouth  to  open  and  shut,  and  the  latest  fashions  in 
dress.  What  is  left  to  awaken  the  imagination  of  the 
child  who  holds  a  twenty-five  dollar  doll  in  her  arms? 
If  you  speak  more  of  the  price  and  the  qualities  of  her 
doll  than  of  any  other  pleasure  in  it,  not  the  doll,  but 
the  money  and  the  silk  and  the  extra  qualities  fill  the 
thoughts  which  pass  through  the  child's  mind,  nor  does 
she  forget  the  thirty-dollar  china  set,  and  the  real  dia- 
monds Molly's  doll  received  from  grandpa  in  a  pair  of 
ear-rings. 

III.     CHILDREN'S   STORIES. 

The  providing  for  our  children,  natural  humor  and  wit 
should  take  one  of  the  highest  places,  not  forgetting  that 
the  frolics  of  youth  differ  from  those  of  Uncle  Sam. 
Those  dealing  with  children  know  of  the  moral,  intellect- 
ual, even  physical  effects  of  story  telling.  There  is  no 
surer  means  of  fructifying  the  minor  germ  with  a  higher 
sympathy  for  life,  than  by  children's  stories,  "the  tim- 


children's  stories.  239 

bers  of  the  soul,"  joining  soul  to  soul,  the  poetical  waves 
that  carry  like  a  soft  breeze  the  sweet  murmurs  of  child- 
hood's simplicity,  in  words  and  actions.  They  must  pre- 
sent nothing  strange,  nothing  artificial,  but  the  utmost 
delicacy  in  form  and  thought,  fragments  of  beauty,  of 
harmony,  of  faith.  Yet  one  must  have  this  all  in  one's 
self.  We  may  deceive  man,  but  we  cannot  deceive  chil- 
dren. Do  not  say,  "  The  child  has  to  know  the  dark  side 
also."  It  has  been  found  that  nothing  created  more  bad 
habits  among  children  than  the  period  of  the  so-called 
"  Strulvepeter  Literature,"  that  is,  showing  pictures  and 
telliniz:  stories  of  children's  faults. 

Make  the  child  strong  in  the  good,  and  instinctively  it 
will  reject  the  wrong.  Let  it  grow  under  the  impression 
and  breathe  in  the  spirit  of  the  great  unity  in  the  universe  ; 
let  it  sympathize  with  that  divine  motherhood  and  father- 
hood and  babyhood  which  unite  all  forces  to  one  end. 
Let  \tfeel  and  see  and  respect  the  unity  between  the  tiny 
flower  it  holds  in  its  little  hand  and  the  puppy's  barking 
at  its  little  feet,  held  under  the  same  law  of  perfection 
and  restriction  as  itself.  All  growth  fulfills  itself  in  un- 
broken silence,  under  the  chords  of  harmony.  Lead  the 
child  by  words  and  deeds  to  the  conception  of  this  har 
mony  in  man  and  nature.  Or  are  heroism,  kindness, 
righteousness,  self-negation,  resistance,  truth,  justice, 
diligence,  obedience,  the  fruit  of  mistrust?  The  world 
needs  character  to  overcome  shrewdness,  —  not  the  so- 
called  smartness  and  shrewdness  to  defeat  character.     It 


240  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

is  a  mistake,  strongly  affirmed  by  the  experiences  in  our 
kindergartens,  that  children  are  born  lawless.  Preyer 
inclines  exactly  to  a  reverse  statement,  saying  that  the 
baby  a  few  months  old  showed  a  divine  tendency  for 
good  habits.  Look  at  the  reports  of  the  most  depraved 
children  in  the  kindergartens.  How  soon  does  their 
assimilation  with  the  silent  growth  of  kindness  and  right- 
eousness bear  flowers  and  fruit  of  utmost  delicacy  !  Is  it 
because  we  have  turned  their  visions  back  to  the  black 
side  of  life  from  which  they  came?  Or  that  we  have 
lifted  them  up  into  the  sphere  of  harmony  and  beauty 
by  the  better  atmosphere  they  breathe?  Koughness, 
coarseness,  boasting,  bodily  force,  "I  don't  care,"  and 
disrespect  to  law,  have  nothing  in  common  with  a 
gentle  but  firm  resistance,  —  independence  of  thought 
and  action,  —  identical  with  truth,  uprightness,  and 
friendship. 

From  this  stand-point,  mothers  and  kindergarteners 
should  invent  and  tell  stories ;  any  event  of  the  day, 
of  the  hour  even,  may  be  turned  into  a  story.  The 
writer  once  met  a  little  expert  in  story  telling.  He 
had  committed  a  selfish  deed  on  the  night  before,  and 
told  a  denying  story  on  the  morning  he  came  to  the 
kindergarten.  The  writer  then  told  the  children  a  story, 
describing  the  wrong-doing  of  the  little  culprit  in  all 
its  details  (without  naming  him).  The  child  listened, 
but  said  nothing.  But  when  he  arrived  home,  his  heart 
opened,  he  fell  on  his  mother's  neck,  and  bursting  into 


children's  picture  books.  241 

> 

tears,  said  that  the  writer  saw  him  through  and  through, 
and  that  he  ivould  never,  never  tell  a  story  again. 

Educators  as  well  as  moralists  are  opposed  gener- 
ally to  fairy  stories ;  and  their  reason,  that  it  leads 
the  child  to  untruth  and  falsification  of  imagination,  is 
not  quite  unfounded.  Yet  some  of  Andersen,  Grimm, 
and  a  few  others  may  be  called  very  acceptable,  and 
the  writer,  for  instance,  will  never  forget  ^Esop  and 
Gellert's  animal  fables  read  by  her  when  a  child ;  no 
nursery  should  be  without  some  good  fables  and  their 
illustrations. 

Stories  may  refer  instructively  and  poetically  to  ani- 
mal and  plant  life,  connecting  their  existence  with  that 
unspoken  yet  audible  "  individual  "  and  "  symbolic  "  lan- 
guage, the  attribute  of  each  object  in  life ;  which,  ac- 
cording to  Froebel,  is  especially  fostered  and  cultivated 
in  our  kindergartens,  as  he  found  the  child,  nearer  and 
truer  to  the  language  of  nature,  intuitively  drawn  to 
it.  A  splendid  help  in  this  direction,  recommended  to 
every  mother  and  teacher,  is  Dr.  Asa  Gray's  "How  Plants 
Behave,"  "How  Plants  Grow,"  and  "Little  People  in 
Feathers  and  Furs,"  Spector's  fables,  and  others. 


IV.     CHILDREN'S   PICTURE  BOOKS. 

With  the  greater  insight  and  sympathy  into  the  beauty 
of  nature,  child  literature,  including  their  picture  books, 
will  be  controlled  by  higher  principles.     They  should  be 


:UFI7BRSITT, 


242  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

considered  with  regard  to  their  motives,  their  artistic  exe- 
cution, and  their  proportions  in  size,  as  well  as  the  dura- 
bility of  their  material.  Germany  employs  her  greatest 
artists  for  the  production  of  children's  pictures,  using  the 
poetical  conception  of  the  child's  incidental  conditions, 
turning  them  into  the  most  delicate  gems  of  human 
idealized  sketches.  They  speak  without  words,  touch- 
ing the  sympathetic  feelings  of  the  child  by  their  poet- 
ical simplicity  as  classical  masterpieces.  Not  less  val- 
uable are  the  humorous  sketches,  or  stories  in  pictures, 
cultivating  witty  logic  and  imagination.  Natural  history 
objects,  as  landscapes,  enlivened  by  the  corresponding 
animal  life,  are  excellent ;  also,  historical  pictures  of  the 
habits  and  life  of  the  ancients,  beginning  with  the  He- 
brew, continuing  with  the  Egyptians,  Greeks,  Romans, 
etc.  Pictures  which  cost  almost  nothing  in  Germany 
at  Braun,  Munich,  Bavaria,  might  be  made  useful  by 
any  intelligent  father  or  mother  in  leisure  hours  in  the 
evening.  The  author  bases  at  least  two  thirds  of  the 
mental  self-activity  of  her  pupils  on  the  scientifically 
arranged  series  of  impressions  given  by  pictures  filling 
the  walls,  and  maps,  embracing  Brockhaus'  famous  illus- 
trations to  the  encyclopaedia  of  the  same  firm. 

The  indelible  impression  from  this  manner  of  teaching 
she  herself  received  when  seventeen  years  old  by  read- 
ing "Adele  and  Theodore,"  the  educational  treatise  by 
Madame  cle  Genly,  where  the  mother  arranged  the  whole 
chateau   instructively   to   her  children ;   having,  for    in- 


243 


stance,  one  five-sided  room  representing  the  five  coun- 
tries, with  the  illustration  of  their  chief  products,  in 
the  natural  objects  themselves,  people  in  costume, 
sceneries,  and  buildings. 

The  writer,  having  for  years  collected  pictures  and 
journals,  arranged  a  basement  play-room  in  her  kinder- 
garten, sixty  by  thirty  feet,  as  follows :  arches  and 
pillars  were  cut  out  of  brown  silesia,  leaving  a  brown 
strip  of  one  foot  at  the  top.  The  bottom  part  was 
finished  as  a  dado,  with  a  border  of  Chinese  figures 
printed  on  cotton  cloth.  Between  the  arches  were 
scarlet  panels,  having  the  full  width  of  scarlet  cotton 
cloth,  on  which  the  young  ladies  of  the  normal  class 
arranged  most  artistic  groups  of  four  and  five  feet  high 
by  two  and  two  and  one  half  feet  wide,  of  various  in- 
structive subjects  cut  out  of  journals.  For  instance, 
beginning  with  ethnology,  the  savage  tribes,  the  life 
of  the  nomads,  was  followed  by  that  of  the  Hebrew, 
Egyptian,  Greek,  Roman,  etc.  The  architectural  groups, 
beginning  with  the  stone  dwellings,  went  through  the 
antique,  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Renaissance,  to  the  mod- 
ern architecture,  including  present  buildings,  depots,  and 
bridges.  There  were  groups  of  human  races,  of  dogs, 
horses,  cattle,  flowers,  distinguished  men  and  women,  in 
short,  almost  everything,  not  neglecting  comical  scenes. 
Some  plants  growing  at  the  outside  were  turned  inside 
around  the  windows,  and  a  brown  "over-all"  carpet 
made  the  whole  place  an  ideal  play-room,  in  which  the 


244  CONSCIOUS   MOTHEKHOOD. 

child  could  elevate  and  cultivate  its  mind  and  body 
through  harmony  and  self-activity.  It  was  a  work  of 
enthusiasm  and  love  in  common,  children  and  students, 
great  and  small!  We  speak  of  the  uncontrollableness 
of  our  children  on  the  playground  ;  have  we  tried  enough 
to  reach  and  soften  their  minds  by  {esthetics  and  beauty? 
Why  is  it  that  my  forty  children,  from  four  to  ten  years 
of  age,  could  play  in  a  cultivated  garden,  and  seldom  step 
on  any  of  the  beds?  And  how  is  it  possible  that  a 
country  like  California  can  have  school-houses  without  a 
single  tree  around  them?  Are  we  in  reality  so  blind  in 
condemning  our  children,  as  to  forget  our  own  obligation 
to  them?  It  was  pure  love  and  a  sense  of  justice  that 
created  our  play-room,  which  in  itself  directed  the  chil- 
dren educationally.  For  years  I  had  been  thinking  of  it, 
collecting  for  it ;  once  realized,  it  worked  perfectly. 
Any  bad  impression  was  avoided,  and  we  may  ask  the 
mothers  of  the  land,  if  there  was  union  in  strength, 
why  should  we  not  be  able  to  control  the  vile  literature 
and  pictures  which  too  often  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
children  and  youth,  and  introduce  much  needed  better 
impressions  ?  The  government  of  the  United  States  has 
its  officers  for  the  purpose  ;  why  can  we  not  have  "  honor- 
ary "  local  officers  in  each  town  or  city,  filled  by  mothers, 
communicating  with  the  State  office  ? 


HOME   LABOR   IN   COMMON.  245 


V.     HOME  LABOR   IN   COMMON. 

Our  realistic  age,  marked  by  its  critical,  argumentative, 
and  analytical  dissertations  on  cause  and  effect,  reflects 
its  spirit  in  our  customs,  our  language,  our  literature, 
our  homes.  The  former  natural  tendency  toward  a  com- 
munity of  sympathies  in  the  family  has  been  destroyed 
by  the  demands  of  the  day  for  what  is  "  ready  made,"  — 
ready-made  food,  ready-made  clothing,  ready-made  homes 
(boarding-houses),  —  giving  free  scope  to  a  negative 
critical  conception  of  subjective  and  objective  conditions. 

Our  homes  are  void  of  sympathetic  efforts  for  "  labor 
in  common  " ;  and  our  schools  are  not  prepared  to  fill  the 
gap  !  JVb  great  man  or  woman  can  be  expected  to  grow 
out  of  the  narrowness  of  an  early  negative  mind. 

We  complain  of  a  lack  of  morality,  forgetting  that  the 
growth  or  destruction  of  morals  depends  on  the  same 
organic  law  as  that  of  any  other  growth  ;  that  is,  "  favor- 
able conditions."  "Labor  in  common,"  the  most  valuable 
and  indispensable  fertilizer,  is  replaced  by  morals  from 
books,  —  "stones  for  bread!  death  for  life!"  How 
does  this  condition  affect  our  children  ? 

Without  a  successive  development  of  the  innate  creative 
powers,  with  no  break,  no  change  in  the  monotony  of  the 
lifeless  proceedings  of  the  day,  no  vigorously  exciting, 
practical  activity  of  childhood  is  fostered  except  in  the 
kindergarten ;  and  yet,  though  most  ready  to  help,  who 
is  more  rebuked  in  their  divine  spirit  than  our  children? 


246  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

There  is  no  exaggeration  in  these  words ;  at  least,  not  in 
an  average  city  life.  For  years  the  author  has  asked 
her  children,  from  four  to  ten  years  old,  Monday  morn- 
ing, seated  for  the  first  half-hour  in  a  large  circle  on  the 
floor,  by  what  actions  they  had  made  themselves  useful 
at  home  on  Saturday  and  Sunday,  impressing  by  conver- 
sation or  tales  the  necessity  and  pleasure  of  usefulness. 
The  experience  thereby  gained  was  that  all  children 
delight  in  work,  but  that  very  few  parents  see  the  edu- 
cational necessity.  For  instance,  a  very  lovely,  conscien- 
tious little  boy  of  rich  parents,  with  a  devotional  love 
for  the  right,  was  for  a  long  time  Monday  morning  com- 
pelled to  shake  his  little  bent  head  in  answering  "No," 
as  to  his  questioned  usefulness.  Once,  as  early  as  six 
o'clock,  the  writer  heard  little  footsteps  in  her  beautiful 
vineyard  arbor  (eighty  feet  long  by  eighteen  wide). 
Anxious  to  know  the  name  of  the  early  guest,  no  name 
could  be  obtained  ;  but  a  sweet,  soft  song,  accompanied 
by  the  clapping  of  little  hands,  continued  for  almost  an 
hour,  till  the  breakfast  hour  called  him  home  again,  from 
which  he  returned  at  the  usual  hour  of  school.  But  with 
what  expression  in  his  face,  with  a  happiness  never 
to  be  forgotten,  he  sat  down  with  the  rest !  At  last 
came  his  turn  to  be  questioned,  and  his  little  heart  burst 
forth,  "I  swept  the  kitchen,"  he  said.  He  had 
found  at  last  a  human  being  ready  to  accept  his  ser- 
vices. Think  of  this  picture  of  mind,  in  its  full 
depth   and  breadth,  educators  and  moralists !     And  this 


HOME   LABOR   IN  COMMON.  247 

is  only  one  of  the  many,  many  stories  which  could  be 
told. 

Mothers  take  refuge  in  saying,  *•  There  is  no  work,"  or 
that  the  trouble  of  superintending  child's  work,  demand- 
ing sympathy,  patience,  animation,  indulgence,  steadi- 
ness, and  principle,  is  too  great,  ignoring  entirely  what 
moral  development  is  lost  to.  the  child.  Besides,  the 
idea  to  use  work,  and  especially  self-help,  in  and  for 
educational  method,  so  as  to  awaken  sympathy  with  the 
needs  and  pleasures  of  others,  thereby  leading  to  a  con- 
ception of  duties  to  others,  is  still  less  instilled,  and  not 
understood  at  all;  even  in  our  kindergartens  sufficient 
work  is  not  done  "in  common."  The  writer's  parents 
had  five  servants  and  a  tutor,  but  none  of  them  were 
permanently  engaged  until  found  capable  and  in  sympa- 
thy with  the  education  of  children.  The  body  servant 
of  my  father,  who  had  accompanied  him  in  the  war, 
was  the  mentor  servant.  At  five  or  six  years  old  my 
brother  and  myself  had  to  set  the  table,  the  servant 
watching  us.  Nothing  was  allowed  to  be  forgotten. 
Everything  had  its  fixed  place.  When  finished,  we 
had  to  ask  the  cook  if  a  special  addition  had  to  be 
made  for  a  special  dish.  The  servant  was  not  allowed 
to  give  more  than  two  hints.  Before  dinner,  my  father 
inspected  the  table  with  full  military  precision.  If 
nothing  was  forgotten,  it  was  stated  in  a  book  kept 
for  that  purpose.  We  had  to  make  our  own  beds 
and  to  attend  to  our  own  wash-stands,  under  the  con- 


248  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

trol  of  a  servant.      My  brother  had   to   clean  his   own 
shoes. 

The  coachman  instructed  us  in  planting  and  culti- 
vating the  garden,  also  in  the  care  of  small  domestic 
animals,  of  which  he  gave  a  weekly  report.  The 
nursery  was  kept  in  order  by  the  children.  My 
mother's  sitting-room  was  next  to  the  nursery,  and  the 
doors  were  always  open.  At  dinner  we  had  to  listen 
to  the  conversation,  which  was  generally  in  French,  till 
dessert  was  served,  when  we  could  join  the  conversa- 
tion. In  good  weather  all  took  a  long  walk  in  company 
with  our  parents  and  tutor.  Any  number  of  questions 
could  be  asked  at  this  hour ;  but  stupid  ones  were  nar- 
rated in  a  book,  and  read  at  the  Sunday  dinner.  Our 
tutor  had  to  show  the  same  degree  of  capacity  in  playing 
with  the  children  as  in  instructing  them.  At  dusk  all 
were  called  into  the  music-room.  The  whole  family, 
including  the  nurse  and  tutor,  sang  and  played.  The 
educational  care  bestowed  on  the  children  was  great, 
and  has  upheld  and  characterized  the  writer's  whole 
existence,  and  that  of  the  next  brother  and  sister. 
The  mother  died  when  I,  the  eldest  child,  was  little  over 
ten  years  old.  But  whatever  we  children  were  and 
are,  we  owe  it  to  our  earliest  education  at  home ;  though 
the  later  life,  from  ten  years  up  after  mother's  death, 
with  an  uncle,  a  clergyman  and  his  wife,  in  a  remote 
country  place,  was  not  less  educational,  furnishing 
through  a  poetical  solitude   in   fields   and  woods   and   a 


HOME   FESTIVALS.  249 

curriculum  of  daily  obligations,  spread  from  the  school- 
room to  the  kitchen  yard  and  garden,  a  natural,  joyful 
preparation  for  life. 

When  will  the  world  learn  to  respect  and  venerate, 
in  these  simple  and  true  events  of  life,  the  sacred 
rights  of  childhood?  When  will  it  learn  to  see  the 
emptiness  of  mind  and  the  shallowness  of  character 
growing  out  of  our  fashionable  amusements  ministered 
to  our  children  for  the  sake  of  the  parents,  pleasing 
their  own  vanity  in  the  moral  and  physical  ruin  of  their 
children  by  dress  parties,  masquerades,  theaters,  din- 
ners, and  children's  balls?  Even  babies  are  not  kept 
unmolested  from  these  children's  monstrosities ;  for  in- 
stance, a  babies'  party  of  children  not  over  two  years 
old,  in  winter,  in  the  city  of  Boston,  the  Athens  of 
America.  (That  does  not  say  that  Europe  is  doing 
much  better  at  the  present  time.) 

VI.    HOME  FESTIVALS. 

It  may  seem  impractical  to  refer  to  an  educational 
reform  so  remote  from  common  consideration.  But  jus- 
tice to  childhood  demands  at  least  the  reference  to  it,  as 
movements  in  this  direction  are  known. 

Not  long  ago,  for  example,  England  and  America 
were  strongly  opposed  to  the  Christmas  tree ;  while 
at  present,  no  city  in  the  world  gives  a  more  general 
and  lovely  appearance  in  its  green  holly,  with  red  ber- 


250  Conscious  motherhood. 

ries,  than  the  busy  city  of  London.  The  Christmas 
tree  has  gained  its  ground  all  over  the  civilized  world. 
Its  lights  are  shining  through  the  dreary  monotony  of 
winter  life,  wherever  the  small  footsteps  of  our  dar- 
lings leave  their  welcome  marks.  But  in  the  name 
of  humanity  and  childhood  let  us  ask,  are  these  lights 
truly  kindled  in  that  spirit  which  baptized  the  Christ- 
mas time  with  that  great  divine  fatherhood  and  brother- 
hood, giving  peace  on  earth  by  works  of  love? 

Of  late,  we  have  not  only  statistically  proved  the  in- 
crease of  crime,  but  of  the  low  character  of  the  crimes 
committed  mostly  by  young  men.  The  church,  the 
school,  and  the  home  aim  all  at  the  higher  moral  cul- 
ture. The  church  stands  out  a  protector  and  interpreter 
of  religious  faith ^and  religious  truth,  leading  to  a  higher 
moral  discrimination  of  human  actions ;  but  beyond  its 
influence  in  Sunday  schools  it  does  not  educate  man 
directly,  at  the  most  important  part  —  the  beginning  of 
life. 

The  school  is  helpless  almost  in  the  same  degree.  It 
has  neither  the  tools  nor  the  leisure  to  turn  the  three 
chief  factors  of  human  morals  —  "emotional  feelings," 
logic,  and  control  of  will  —  into  self-educating  activ- 
ities. Neither  abstract  knowledge  nor  morals  taught 
from  books  will  ever  develop  human  character.  Moral- 
ity is  a  natural  growth  of  self-experience  and  self-activ- 
ity, fostered  and  strengthened  under  elevating  example 
and     proper     direction.     There     is.    only    one     natural 


HOME   FESTIVALS.  251 

ground  for  its  growth,  —  the  heart  of  the  family,  and  its 
extension  in  furnishing  and  continuing  the  home  and 
social  conditions,  the  kindergarten. 

Home  festivals,  in  a  most  unpretentious  form,  are  the 
very  stepping-stones  to  cultivate  that  moral  delicacy  in 
individual  attention  and  consideration  which  gives  the 
Christmas  time  its  unrivaled  characteristics. 

This  wonderful  inward  life,  blown  and  thrown  back 
by  the  cold  of  winter  storms  into  the  depth  of  family 
tenderness  and  family  ties,  kindled  and  lighted  up  by 
the  thousand  little  chips  of  love  and  gratitude  and  rev- 
erence, inflaming  all  the  emotional  sympathies  of  a  past 
and  a  present  time,  to  find  expression  in  deeds  of  love  and 
gratitude, — this  wonderful  inward  life,  with  its  supreme 
rights  to  follow  the  one  we  love  to  his  inmost  corner  of 
hope  and  inspiration,  what  self-forgetting  secrets,  what 
unselfish  planning,  what  love  to  others,  have  been  hidden 
through  ages  under  the  green  boughs  of  the  Christmas 
tree, — this  wonderful  inward  life,  that  touches  us  in  our 
darling's  merriment  and  laughter,  asking  us  if  the  germs 
of  their  joys  are  sufficiently  and  deeply  bedded  and 
nursed  in  their  sacred  shroud  of  loving  conception  as 
to  reappear  in  due  time,  loaded  with  bloom  and  fruits 
to  those  who  call  them  into  life  and  existence,  —  this 
wonderful  inward  life,  falling  from  the  silent  Christmas 
tree,  the  symbol  of  "everlasting  human  mystery  and 
tenderness,"  of  sport  and  delicacy,  with  the  fragrance 
of  the   deep,    dark   pine   woods,   and   the   brilliancy  of 


252  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

an  altar,  —  who  dares  to  set  in  place  of  its  sacredness 
of  human  love,  the  loud,  noisy,  meaningless  appear- 
ance of  a  Santa  Claus?  In  this  course  of  exchange 
of  higher  sentiments  we  find  the  basis  of  home  festi- 
vals. However  simple  they  may  be,  they  nourish  lov- 
ing attention  and  consideration.  They  include  fam- 
ily birthdays,  each  having  a  cake  and  favorite  dish, 
mamma  and  papa's  wedding  day,  a  family  spring  and 
fall  excursion,  the  recovery  of  an  invalid,  baby's  first 
actions,  the  search  for  Easter  eggs,  grandpa's  and 
grandma's  visits,  the  first  and  last  rose  always  to  be 
given  to  mamma,  the  first  moss  rose  which  is  for  papa's 
button-hole,  and  the  wreath  of  daisies  on  the  head  of 
little  sister,  who  herself  is  a  little  daisy.  They  include 
the  honor  of  bringing  the  slippers  and  carrying  away 
the  overcoat,  not  to  forget  the  little  wash-rags,  the 
pen-wipers,  the  dusters  and  aprons  and  handkerchiefs 
sewed  and  hemmed  delightedly  for  the  happy  sister 
and  brother,  and  the  birthdays  of  the  servants.  And 
where  does  this  wonderful  inward  life  find  its  undis- 
turbed silent  growth?  Nowhere  else  than  in  the  heart 
of  the  family. 


e.  marwedel's  kindergarten  suggestions.      253 


VII  E.  MARWEDEL'S  CIRCULAR  SEWING,  DRAWING, 
AND  PAPER  CUTTING.  KINDERGARTEN  SUG- 
GESTIONS. 

One  day,  dear  Aunt  May  came  to  see  mamma,  telling 
her  of  a  man  by  the  name  of  Froebel,  and  how  he  loved 
little  children  ;  who  had  thought  of  something  to  do  for 
them  even  when  quite  small ;  and  that  she  should  read 
about  him,  and  so  mamma  did.  Aunt  told  her  "  it  was 
no  nursery"  if  FroebeVs  playthings  were  not  there!  It 
was  quite  near  Christmas.  And  the  children  heard 
mamma  and  papa  talk  a  great  deal  together.  After 
the  children  had  gone  to  bed,  they  heard  some  men 
go  into  the  nursery.  It  seemed  as  if  the  furniture  was 
being  moved,  but  the  next  morning  everything  was 
again  in  its  place,  but  the  children  said,  "You  be  sure 
Christmas  brings  us  some  beautiful  things."  Christmas 
eve  they  were  all  sent  to  grandma's  ;  papa  said  there 
would  be  no  room  for  them  in  the  nursery  until  five 
o'clock  in   the  evening :   only  the  baby  could  stay. 

The  dear  children  put  their  heads  together  to  guess, 
and  they  thought  they  would  have  a  big,  big  doll  house, 
or  a  big,  big  rocking  horse,  or  a  big,  big  farm-yard,  and 
neither  grandpa  nor  grandma  would  tell.  So  evening 
came,  and  there  came  the  bell  which  called  the  children 
into  the  nursery.  The  beautiful  Christmas  tree  was  in 
the  middle  of  the  room,  and  sure  enough,  there  was 
something  big.     It  was  a  table  box,  with  some  sand  in  it, 


254         *  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

longer  than  papa  when  stretched  on  the  floor;  also 
another  table,  with  four  chairs  around  it ;  mamma  said, 
now  she  could  have  us  play  and  work,  and  we  would  be 
happy.  There  were  nice  boxes  with  needles  and  all  kinds 
of  worsted,  and  they  all  wanted  to  begin  at  once.  Yet 
mamma's  work  in  the  nursery  could  not  begin  till  the 
next  day.  She  told  the  children  she  wished  they  would 
place  a  chair  for  her,  just  in  the  middle  of  the  room. 
The  idea  pleased  the  children  very  much,  but  they  did 
not  know  what  mamma  meant.  What  was  middle  ?  But 
mamma  did  not  want  to  tell  them,  and  it  seemed  quite 
hard  to  make  them  know.  Finally,  she  said,  "Place  the 
chair  any  where. "  So  they  did ;  and  when  they  asked 
mamma  if  it  was  the  middle,  she  only  shook  her  head 
and  smiled  a  little,  saying,  "  No."  And  the  children  be- 
came quite  interested,  and  they  moved  and  moved  the 
chair,  and  they  laughed  and  mamma  laughed,  and  shook 
her  head,  meaning,  "No."  Then  Freddy  came  home  from 
school,  and  he  laughed  too,  and  said,  "  Why,  you  should 
know  better ;  put  the  chair  under  the  gas-light,  that  is 
always  in  the  middle."  So  they  put  it  under  the  gas-light 
in  the  parlor ;  but  mamma  said  she  did  not  want  it  in  the 
parlor,  so  the  trouble  began  anew.  Then  Minnie  said, 
"  I  think  I  know,"  and  so  she  went  back  to  the  parlor  and 
looked  where  the  gas-light  was,  and  she  placed  Marian  on 
one  side  and  Giles  on  the  other,  and  said,  "When  I  clap 
my  hands,  you  march  forward,"  which  they  did,  and 
they  came  almost  together  under  the  gas-light,  and  then 


e.  marwedel's  kindergarten  suggestions.      255 

they  thought  they  knew.  So  they  went  back  in  the 
nursery.  Irving  said  each  must  have  a  chair  in  hand ;  so 
they  marched  with  two  chairs,  and  when  they  came 
together,  mamma  laughed  so  much  that  they  knew  they 
were  very  wrong  again.  Then  they  said  they  would  stop. 
And  all  day  long  the  children  thought  of  the  middle, 
but  everybody  said  they  had  to  find  out  for  themselves. 
Freddy  said  his  teachers  never  asked  him,  but  he  knew 
the  gas-light  was  in  the  middle,  and  so  was  his  nose. 
But  in  the  afternoon  mamma  wanted  a  shawl,  and  she 
wished  to  have  it  turned  on  the  other  side,  so  she  said 
to  nurse,  "Do  you  not  see  the  crease  through  the  middle? 
Let  us  fold  it  together." 

Hearing  the  words  "middle"  and  "folding,"  the  chil- 
dren all  rushed  together,  and  talked  and  talked  together, 
and  finally  they  went  to  the  cook,  and  asked  her  if  they 
could  not  have  some  strings,  even  if  they  were  in  ever 
so  many  pieces ;  they  would  knot  them  together  while 
mamma  was  away.  They  went  into  the  nursery  and  laid 
the  strings  down  on  the  floor,  like  the  shawl,  and  folded 
them  together.  But,  oh,  how  hard  that  was  ;  they  never 
could  find  it ;  but  Freddy,  when  he  came  home,  thought 
he  could  help  them ;  and  when  mamma  came  back  they 
had  just  made  a  little  dot  in  the  middle  of  the  room,  and 
were  sure  that  next  morning  they  could  place  the  chair 
on  it.  So,  next  morning,  they  asked  mamma  if  she  did 
not  wish  to  have  her  chair  in  the  middle  of  the  room, 
and  she  expected  another   laugh  again ;    but   how  much 


256  CONSCIOUS   MOTHEKHOOD. 

was  her  surprise  at  finding  the  chair  exactly  at  the 
middle  !  And  all  had  a  great  deal  to  say,  and  they  were 
very  happy.  Then  mamma  wished  the  children  to  place 
the  four  little  chairs  just  in  the  front  of  her,  all  straight, 
all  with  the  same  open  space  between  them,  and  it  took 
the  children  almost  a  whole  half-hour;  but  you  cannot 
think  how  glad  they  were  to  have  mamma's  chair  in  the 
middle,  as  it  helped  them  ever  so  much.  Then,  finally, 
mamma  said  she  would  open  some  of  the  many  boxes 
she  had,  and  give  us  something  to  do.  That  made  us 
very  happy.  It  was  some  holes  made  in  bristol-board ; 
and  mamma  told  us  to  thread  our  needles  with  red 
worsted,  and  then  put  our  needles  down  in  one  hole  and 
up  again  in  the  next.  So  there  grew  a  line  wider  and 
wider,  and  finally  we  came  back  to  the  first  hole.  Then 
mamma  said  we  should  tell  her  what  we  had  been  doing, 
and  all  burst  forth,  "We  have  been  sewing  something 
in  the  middle  of  a  piece  of  bristol-board."  "  But  what?" 
said  mamma,  and  there  we  were  again  as  yesterday. 
"Something  exactly  like  the  ball,"  said  one.  "Ex- 
actly !  "  said  Minnie ;  "I  do  not  think  you  can  say  so. 
Does  it  fill  your  hand  like  the  ball?"  And  then  Giles 
said,  "  Cut  it  out !  cut  it  out !  quick,  and  let  us  try."  And 
mamma  said,  "  Well,  you  may."  But  Minnie  was  right ; 
she  could  not  hold  it  like  a  ball.  So  mamma  proposed 
they  might  try  to  find  something  like  their  sewing. 
The  children  delighted  in  that,  and  went  to  do  so. 
Freddy  was  just  passing  by,  going  to  school,  and  said, 


e.  marwedel's  kindergarten  suggestions.      257 

"If  I  could  only  stay  away  from  school,  and  join  in 
your  lots  of  fun  ! n  Finally,  all  had  found  what  they 
wanted.  Harry  carried  a  basket,  Susie  a  broken  doll- 
house  filled  with  round  things,  but  Earle  held  what  he 
found  in  his  hands  and  pocket.  Mamma  was  preparing 
the  sand  table,  of  which  we  will  speak  afterwards,  just 
moist  enough  to  divide  it  by  straight  lines  into  squares. 
Her  chair  was  exactly  in  the  middle  of  the  room  ;  the 
sun  shone  brightly  and  pleasantly,  filling  the  nursery  ^ith 
warmth  and  light.  Mamma  kissed  each  of  the  children, 
and  then  let  them  sit  down.  The  little  winter  garden 
was  opened,  and  a  balmy  fragrance  streamed  from  the 
dear  green  plants  and  flowers.  Mamma  spoke  of  the 
beauty,  the  usefulness,  and  the  necessity  of  sunshine, 
and  it  was  compared  with  mamma's  and  papa's  love  and 
care.  They  were  asked  if  they  would  not  give  thanks 
as  the  flowers  thank  the  sun  and  the  gardener  in  breath- 
ing out  their  fragrance,  and  they  did  so.  Finally  mamma 
sang  a  little  morning  song  composed  by  dear  Mrs.  Hor- 
ace Mann  for  her  own  lovely  kindergarten,  which  reads 
as  follows  :  — 

M  Good  morning,  glorious  sun; 
Good  morning,  glorious  sun ; 
Good  morning,  glorious  sun. 
How  I  love  the  light  of  the  sun ! 

"  God  sends  his  bright  spring  sun 
To  melt  the  ice  and  snow, 
To  start  the  green  leaf-buds, 
And  make  the  flowers  grow. 


258  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

"  God  sends  his  love  to  man, 
To  make  his  goodness  grow. 
Let  us  be  sweet  like  flowers 
That  in  the  garden  grow." 

And  the  children  asked  her  to  teach  this  lovely  song. 
Afterwards  they  made  the  shape  of  the  sun  with  the 
fingers  of  both  hands,  and  the  morning-glory  as  it 
opens  in  the  morning  and  shuts  by  night. 

Taking  sweet  little  Francise  on  her  lap,  she  said, 
"Please,  how  many  —  when  you  were  still  sound  asleep 
or  enjoying  your  good  breakfast  —  remember  how  many 
people  and  things  were  already  working  for  you." 
Then  we  spoke  of  light  and  sunshine  and  rain,  that 
neither  papa  nor  mamma  could  give  or  make.  The 
children  remembered  the  early  rising  of  the  milkman, 
the  butcher,  the  baker,  who  give  their  night's  rest,  and 
the  hens  and  the  cows  that  give  eggs  and  butter,  and 
the  trees  that  give  fruit,  and  they  felt  thankful  to  all, 
and  especially  to  God  who  made  them  all.  Then  they 
sang  a  sweet  morning  hymn,  a  fond  one,  too  :  — 

"  Father,  we  thank  you  for  the  night, 
And  for  the  pleasant  morning  light." 

Then  mamma  said  she  was  very  anxious  to  see  the 
round  things  they  had  found.  Mary  had  a  lime,  Harry 
a  little  round  bell  from  his  sister's  rattle,  Susie  an 
orange  ;  but  she  told  her  it  was  not  round,  but  flat  on 
each  end.  Earle  had  a  big  marble.  Mamma  was 
pleased,  yet  she  wanted  something  like  their  sewing,  to 


E.  marwedel's  kindergarten  suggestions.      259 

which  the  children  replied  they  could  not  tell,  but  show. 
Therefore,  mamma  told  each  one  to  find  the  middle  of 
his  or  her  square  on  the  sand  table,  and  lay  those 
objects  down  in  the  same  way  as  they  sewed  their  cards. 
This  they  did.  But  all  they  could  accomplish  was  to 
press  them  half  in  the  sand.  If  they  covered  them 
more  than  half  they  could  not  get  them  out  smoothly, 
and  even  by  pressing  them  in  only  half-way,  and  trying 
as  hard  and  as  carefully  to  get  them  out  again,  nothing 
could  be  seen  but  a  kind  of  a  bird's-nest  or  a  hole,  such 
as  the  boys  make  for  their  marble  plays.  Just  then 
Cousin  Alfred  stepped  in,  and  he  said  he  could  make 
them  any  ball.  Of  course,  we  all  wanted  him  to  try. 
Then  he  said  we  would  have  to  leave  the  room,  and 
when  ready  he  would  call.  He  moistened  the  sand  till 
he  was  able  to  make  four  balls,  then  he  thought  he 
would  give  them  a  surprise.  So  he  asked  his  aunt  to 
give  him  some  fine  white  sugar  to  cover  one  of  the  balls. 
Next  he  covered  the  second  with  coal-dust.  For  the 
third  one  he  took  red  brick  powder,  and  the  fourth  he 
covered  with  bluing  from  the  wash-house.  After  this 
he  called  us  in,  and  you  may  imagine  the  surprise  and 
the  pleasure  before  they  were  able  to  find  out  the  whole 
story.  But  when  one  ball  after  another  fell  to  pieces, 
we  wanted  to  know  the  reason  why.  Earle  said  he 
did  not  think  they  were  balls  at  all,  because  he  could 
not  roll  or  squeeze  them ;  and  Susie  said  she  was  sure 
if  she   should  throw   the   red   ball   against   the   wall   it 


260  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

would  come  down  in  red  powder.  Then  mamma  asked 
once  more  for  something  like  their  sewing.  Harry  had 
a  saucer,  Mary  a  glass,  Susie  a  pill-box,  Rose  shook 
her  little  head,  and  would  not  show.  Harry's  saucer 
was  first  put  in  the  sand,  very,  very  carefully,  and  very 
carefully  it  was  taken  out.  But  the  impression  left  did 
not  look  a  bit  like  the  sewing.  There  was  a  small  ring 
making  a  little  rim,  besides  another  impression  like  the 
under  side  of  the  saucer. 

All  they  could  do  was  to  laugh.  Next  came  Mary. 
She  put  her  glass  carefully  in  the  sand,  and  when  she 
lifted  it  again,  she  found  a  beautiful  star  and  a  little 
rim  deep  down  in  the  sand,  but  it  was  not  like  the  sew- 
ing. Susie  had  her-pill  box.  She  thought  she  would 
try  the  cover,  which  she  pressed  in  the  sand.  And 
taking  it  up,  what  a  general  surprise !  there,  sure 
enough,  was  just  such  a  ring  as  they  had  been  sewing. 
Then  they  had  a  long,  long  talk  —  if  they  sewed  a  ring, 
or  if  it  was  a  piece  cut  out  of  the  ball,  or  if  they  sewed 
what  mamma  called  the  outer  edge  of  the  ball.  But 
the  children  were  happy,  and  Prescott  said,  "Never  mind 
about  the  name ;  sometimes  we  may  call  it  a  round  ring, 
when  it  looks  like  it,  and  a  ball  when  we  color  it." 

Afterwards  they  asked  mamma  if  they  could  not  make 
rings  in  the  sand,  and  put  something  more  in  the  middle 
of  the  ring  to  make  a  wheel.  Mamma  said  they  might, 
and  it  would  lead  them  to  the  circular  drawing  of  the 
rings.     Then  they   made  a  moon,  and  Rosie  wanted  to 


E.    MARWEDEl/s   KINDERGARTEN   SUGGESTIONS.        261 

make  a  round  face ;  two  dots  for  the  eyes,  one  for  the 
nose  and  two  lines  for  the  lips,  and  it  was  a  very  funny 
face ;  and  when  she  drew  it  on  paper  afterwards  it  looked 
still  more  funny,  because  she  made  two  red  checks  with 
pencils.  Then  Charley  stepped  forward,  and  said,  "I 
think  now  I  know  why  that  ring  is  called  'circus';  papa 
said  so  one  day,  and  is  not  a  circus  round?  I  can  make 
it,  too  " ;  and  so  speaking,  he  pressed  a  butter  dish  in  the 
sand  table.  He  pressed  it  down  very,  very  deep,  and  in 
taking  it  out,  it  was  half  a  ball  he  had  pressed.  Then 
the  children  took  the  butter  dish  to  look  at  it,  and  turn- 
ing it  around  in  their  hands  they  found  it  very  difficult 
to  judge  of  it.  Irwing  said  the  ball  is  all  round  and  high 
all  over ;  the  butter  dish  is  on  one  side  a  ring,  and  look 
here,  inwards  it  is  sliding  down  till  it  is  all  flat,  and  when 
you  turn  it  on  the  other  side  it  is  almost  the  same,  only  it 
slides  the  other  way.  But  Marion  said,  H  How  is  it  with 
the  water?  On  which  side  will  the  water  be?"  Then  Ma- 
rion said,  "Don't  you  see,  on  this  side  it  is  an  umbrella 
and  it  runs  off,  and  on  this  side  you  can  drink  from  it." 
But  Giles  said  if  he  could  have  another  butter  dish  he 
could  make  a  perfect  ball.  He^received  another  dish,  and 
his  disappointment  was  very  great,  as  with  the  seeds  once 
before,  but  he  said  if  he  could  cut  the  flat  parts  off,  he 
would  have  almost  a  perfect  ball, — something  like  it, 
perhaps  a  little  different,  but  after  all,  round.  Finally, 
all  the  children  decided  the  butter  dish  was  *  a  standing- 
up  ring,"  and  the  ball  "  a  ball  all  over  "  ;  and  mamma  said 


262  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

she  would  give  them  next  time  a  piece  of  clay  to  make  a 
ball  and  a  butter  dish,  and  then  they  would  know  surely 
the  difference.  Mary  said,  "Why  not  make  the  butter 
also?  I  have  a  little  churn,  and  can  make  real  butter  in 
it."  Then  mamma  told  how  butter  was  made,  and  asked 
them  if  they  ever  thought  how  much  the  green  grass  and 
the  yellow  flowers  had  to  do  with  their  fresh  butter,  and 
they  thought  it  very  funny. 

From  this  time  the  ball  and  the  ring —  finally  they  called 
it  circle  —  and  the  middle  were  observed  everywhere  ;  so 
much  so  that  mamma  said  she  would  make  cards,  called 
"Aunt  Emma's  Sewing  Circular  Cards,"  which  would  be 
their  playmates  for  a  little  while,  and  they  liked  that 
idea.  Therefore,  next  morning  she  had  another  sew- 
ing card.  I  shall  never  forget  one  thing  mamma  always 
made  us  say:  that  was,  "one  ball"  and  "one  ball"  — 
not  two  balls,  or  a  child.  In  holding  the  sewing  card 
up,  she  said,  "What  do  you  see?"  Well,  we  saw,  as 
on  our  first  sewing  card,  holes  made  for  sewing.  So 
mamma  said,  "Please  use  these  holes  as  you  did  be- 
fore, and  then  let  me  know."  Now  we  were  very 
busy,  and  when  we  had, come  back  with  our  needles 
where  we  began  the  circle,  we  saw  holes  still  for  another 
one,  and  we  sewed  it  also,  both  with  red  worsted. 
Mamma  said  she  would  give  us  a  red  pencil  to  color  the 
last  one.  That  was  just  beautiful!  Then  we  found 
we  had  one  one,  and  one  one,  making  two  ones  ;  and 
mamma   made  us  find  ever  so  many  things  in   the   two 


E.    MARWEDElTS   KINDERGARTEN    SUGGESTIONS.        263 

cards  which  were  alike  and  unlike,  or  the  same  and  not 
the  same ;  and  mamma  made  us  point  to  all  things  which 
were  one  and  one  times  in  the  room,  and  in  the  garden, 
and  we  told  her  when  we  saw  one  and  one  horse  on  the 
carriage.  But  then  she  wanted  to  know  of  all  the  differ- 
ences between  the  two  sewing  cards.  Eugene  said  there 
was  no  more  middle.  Giles  laughed,  saying,  "Everything 
has  a  middle,  even  my  nose."  After  many  things  referred 
to,  they  said  it  was  very  hard  to  tell  all  the  changes  in 
words,  but  the  sand  table  could.  So  mamma  told  each 
child  to  find  out  for  himself.  Some  took  sticks  and 
made  a  real  sewing  card  in  the  sand ;  then  we  put  a  stick 
in  the  middle,  and  then  we  knew  we  had  the  middle,  and 
we  found  a  left  and  a  right  side,  so  we  put  some  rings 
there.  By  and  by  we  found  some  things  that  were  alike, 
or  similar  in  shape,  size,  color;  unlike  or  dissimilar  in 
number,  color,  position. 

On  the  first  card  we  found  only  one  circle  ;  on  the  sec- 
ond one  and  one  circle,  making  two  circles.  The  first 
sewing  card  showed  the  one  circle  in  the  middle,  while  in 
the  second  there  was  nothing  in  the  middle,  and  the  two 
circles  on  the  top  and  bottom.  When  Alfred  was  pass- 
ing by,  he  looked  at  the  card,  and  turning  one  of  them, 
Georgie  said,  "Now  there  are  left  and  right."  This 
brought  out  a  great  deal  of  talk,  and  the  arms  and  the 
head  and  the  feet  had  to  serve  to  make  things  quite  clear. 
For  the  little  ones  mamma  made  a  little  boy  by  putting 
two  short  hair-pins  at  the  bottom  of  a  worsted  ball,  mak- 


264  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

ing  the  legs,  and  long  ones  higher  up  to  make  the  arms. 
What  a  lot  of  fun  that  was  !  Once  she  made  a  man  from 
a  handkerchief;  he  had  arms,  right  and  left,  a  head  on 
the  top  and  legs  at  the  bottom.  That  was  ever  so  much 
fun,  too,  and  we  all  learned  what  was  right  and  left  for- 
ever. 

Another  difference  was,  that  the  circle  on  the  first  card 
was  without  color,  while  on  the  second  we  saw  one  was 
colored,  the  other  not.  But  mamma  told  papa  what  is 
real  hard  to  remember  of  likes  and  unlikes,  similarities 
and  dissimilarities  to  be  found  on  these  six  circular  sew- 
ing cards  ;  they  were,  shape,  color,  size,  number,  posi- 
tion, direction. 

And  papa  said  he  thought  no  little  girl  or  little  boy 
without  this  knowledge  could  ever  learn  to  see  rightly,  to 
think  rightly,  and  to  describe  things  rightly.  So  mamma 
invited  papa  for  the  morning  after  the  next,  to  have 
a  great  deal  of  fun.  And,  to  the  hearts'  delight  of  all  the 
children,  he  came.  They  had  been  sewing  the  third  card, 
marked  with  three  similar  circles  in  three  different  col- 
ors, one  red,  one  blue,  one  yellow.  Papa  was  quite  sur- 
prised to  hear  what  these  three  simple  circles  told  the 
children,  in  comparing  them  with  the  previous  chart. 
And  he  was  amazed  to  learn  how  much  ingenuity,  as  he 
called  it,  was  needed  for  mamma  not  to  tell  us,  but  to  lead 
us  by  many,  many  little  things  —  "  hints,"  papa  called  it 
—  and  questions  to  find  out  by  ourselves  their  position; 
either  lying  over,  or  under,  or  between,  or  overlapping 


e.  marwedel's  kindergarten  suggestions.      265 

each  other,  being  on  the  right  and  left  or  on  the  top  and 
the  bottom  of  the  middle,  etc.  Then  mamma  promised 
us  a  play  :  to  be  asked  by  a  playmate  to  place  a  ball 
either  on  the  top  or  bottom,  to  the  right  or  left,  over 
or  under,  or  between  and  behind  something,  knowing  it 
would  be  a  great  pleasure,  and  so  it  was  always,  and 
Aunt  Emma  knows  that,  too,  and  her  loving  children, 
especially  when  a  nice  story  of  "  under  and  over  "  follows. 
Finally  mamma  said,  "Now  we  will  have  still  more 
pleasure  extra  for  i^apa."  So  she  handed  each  of  us 
three  colored  pencils  to  color  the  circles  with,  and  papa 
said  he  never  dreamed  that  work-play  like  this  could 
make  the  children  so  good  and  so  happy.  But  mamma 
said,  "Now,  papa,  watch";  and  while  we  were  coloring 
and  having  a  fine  time,  she  saw  us  suddenly  stop,  then 
go  on,  and  stop  again,  and  at  last  left  the  card.  She 
saw  us  all  wondering  at  something.  We  did  not  look  at 
our  little  neighbors,  and  went  on  silently.  Then  Isadore 
burst  forth,  "Mamma,  I  ha-ve  —  fo-ur  colors,  and  you 
gave  me  but  three  pencils.  I  have  green,  and  you  did  not 
give  it  to  me."  Then  all  spoke  at  once,  so  we  could 
not  hear  our  own  words,  and  papa  said  mamma  made 
all  his  little  tods  inventors  and  artists  from  the  start,  and 
as  they  always  had  been  the  happiest  people  on  earth,  he 
was  glad  of  it. 

So  papa  left,  but  he  took  the  six  sewing  cards  with 
him,  and  on  being  told  that  No.  4  card  gave  the  compari- 
son of  size  shown  in  another  way,  that  is,  "ring  in  ring," 


266  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

introducing  "inward  and  outward,"  which  is  supple- 
mented on  the  last  card  by  two  straight  lines,  one  run- 
ning up  and  down,  the  other  left  and  right,  cutting  the 
circles  in  many  different  pieces,  which  by  and  by  we 
learned  to  compare  in  shape  and  size,  he  said  he  would 
show  them  to  the  Board  of  Education,  and  question  them 
just  as  mamma  had  questioned  us,  and  he  wrould  ask 
them  if  they  thought  they  ever  had  a  better  start  them- 
selves ;  and  if  the  beginning  was  so  good,  and  showed 
so  much  practical  common-sense,  how  good  the  rest  must 
be.  And  he  really  did  so!  But  we  do  not  know  what 
the  board  said,  only  we  heard  him  saying,  "  I  know  one 
thing  surely,  and  that  is,  if  mammas  were  in  all  boards 
or  education,  and  could  tell  us  what  our  young  chil- 
dren need,  because  they  know  them,  and  handle  them,  and 
love  them  better,  ive  could  do  things  that  would  b  k  much 
better."  The  next  morning  baby  came  in  with  her 
basket  full  of  Aunt  Emma's  color  play  No.  1,  called 
"  Grandma's  Buttons." 

They  looked  in  some  way  like  our  sewing,  at  least  on 
one  side.  They  have  beautiful  colors,  and  are  of  two 
sizes,  but  none  can  be  swallowed  by  baby,  or  put  in  its 
nose,  and  some  have  holes  so  that  they  may  be  strung 
up,  and  therefore  came  the  name,  "Grandma's  Buttons." 

Mamma  had  to  leave  us.  She  told  us  to  play  with 
baby  and  her  buttons.  And  what  beautiful  things  we 
made.  Each  started  from  the  middle.  Then  we  played 
one  on   the  right,  one   on   the   left,  on   the  top  of  it, 


E.  marwedel's  kindergarten  suggestions.      267 

always  making  our  choice  of  colors,  so  that  mamma  might 
call  them  patterns.  And  we  asked  baby  if  we  could 
have  them  very  often,  because  we  knew  now  of  the 
middle,  and  that  they  must  always  lie  down  in  a  perfectly 
straight  or  curved  line. 

But  baby  could  not  answer,  but  kiss.  Mamma  said  we 
could  use  them,  if  they  pleased  us  so  much,  and  in 
time  we  could  draw  the  pattern  we  laid  down ;  and 
also  we  would  make  the  outlines  of  a  watch  and  a  pear, 
a  hat,  and  many  other  things.  And  do  you  know  the 
joke  of  Rosie  ?  She  laid  papa's  watch  down  and  the  but- 
tons all  around,  and  it  was  a  perfect  circle  ;  then  she 
took  two  sticks  to  make  the  hands,  and  some  for  the 
chain  and  the  locket.  But  she  thought  next  time  she 
would  not  be  helped  in  that  way. 

The  greatest  pleasure  we  had  with  grandma's  buttons 
was  in  the  evening  with  papa  and  Uncle  John,  not  to 
forget  grandma  and  grandpa.  Then  we  called  it  "  see 
me  quick."  For  instance,  five  or  seven  or  nine  or  thir- 
teen of  the  buttons  were  placed  by  one  who  held  a 
watch,  and  we  were  allowed  to  look  for  just  a  second 
at  the  figure  and  the  difference  of  the  colors ;  then  the 
pattern  was  taken  away,  and  all  tried  to  make  a  similar 
one.  But  oh,  the  fun  we  had  in  the  mistakes,  till  the 
eye  and  the  mind  were  trained  "  to  see  quickly  "  and  cor- 
rectly. Uncle  John  said  that  reminded  him  of  the  car- 
rying of  mind-pictures,  so  much  used  now  in  our  schools 
to  abolish  the  memorizing  process.     And  papa  said  this 


268  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

was  another  thing  he  would  like  our  school  board  to 
study;  it  would  make  them  laugh,  and  that  was  what 
we  all  need.  Children  who  have  to  learn  most,  should 
do  it  with  pleasure.  All  work  should  he  done  in  earnest 
to  do  it  well,  but  without  pleasure  no  assimilation  of 
the  mind  will  take  place. 

Mamma  never  made  us  sit  still  very  long,  and  what 
we  could  do  standing  and  walking  she  preferred.  Our 
little  marching  and  movement  songs  were  many,  and 
we  will  speak  of  them  hereafter. 

VIII.     THE    SAND    TABLE. 

One  day  Aunt  Emma  sent  mamma  a  letter  about  sand 
tables.  Enclosed  was  one  from  her  pupil  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  kindergartener  of  the  Silver  Star  Free  Kin- 
dergarten. 

Mamma  was  so  pleased  that  she  thought  she  would 
like  to  see  it  printed  in  the  "Ideal  Nursery"  for  some  one 
thousand  other  children.     It  reads  as  follows  :  — 

The  sand  table  is  not  only  one  of  the  most  interesting  but 
most  instructive  features  of  the  kindergarten,  leading  the  child 
to  a  high  moral  development  by  making  him,  when  he  becomes  a 
member  of  a  social  organization,  learn  quite  eai\y  as  an  individ- 
ual to  respect  the  work  of  others,  and  to  overcome  his  own  self- 
ishness. While  standing  at  the  table,  he  is  told  to  mark  out  a 
representation  of  the  room,  some  streets,  or  a  park,  or  anything 
he  likes,  under  the  guidance  and  some  instructive  words  of  the 
kindergartener.  I  told  the  children  that  the  life  of  man  began  in 
a  garden,  their  first  work  being  to  dress  and  to  keep  every- 
thing aright.     So  the   children  were  left  to   dig,  to  sow  seeds, 


THE    SAND   TABLE. 


269 


some  peas,  flax,  and  some  grasses.  The  seeds  were  scattered  all 
over  the  sand  table.  They  were  covered  with  earth,  so  as  to 
keep  the  tiny  baby  seeds  warm.  Every  day  they  were  watered, 
so  that  the  little  seeds  would  not  get  thirsty,  and  it  became  quite 
touching  to  watch  the  eager  eyes  turned  daily  to  the  sand  table 
to  see  if  the  little  seeds  had  sprouted. 

At  last,  one  morning  we  saw  the  green  shoots  pushed  into  the 
light,  and  at  the  end  of  the  week  we  had  a  beautiful  green 
lawn.  The  children  were  just  delighted.  It  was  then  suggested 
that  a  house  and  a  barn  should  be  built,  and  walks  and  drives 
made,  and  that  each  child  should  make  a  part  of  the  house  or 
barn.  The  house  was  made  of  bristol-board,  with  a  real  pattern 
imitating  bricks  and  paintings.  The  roof  was  made  of  gray  and 
maroon,  weaving  mats  to  represent  slates.  The  doors  and  win- 
dow were  sewed  on  gray  bristol-board  imitating  paintings.  The 
well  was  also  made  of  bristol-board  imitating  stones,  and  it  had 
moss  growing  all  over  it.  The  tiny  basket,  suspended  by  a 
chain,  was  made  of  slate.  This  work  lasted  fully  six  weeks, 
and  the  children  were  instructed  regarding  every  part  of  the 
house,  the  barn,  and  the  beautiful  garden,  as  far  as  they  were 
interested  in  them.  The  walks  were  covered  with  very  small 
shells,  and  a  rockery  was  composed  of  tiny  little  stones  gathered 
by  the  children,  crowned  at  the  top  wilh  a  tiny  pot  of  ferns. 
They  were  so  eager  to  complete  their  "high-toned  house,"  as 
they  called  it,  that  whenever  recess  came,  they  preferred  keep- 
ing their  seats  in  order  to  finish  their  house.  Here  the  children 
learned  to  share  generously,  to  accept  graciously,  and  to  yield 
courteously  to  the  social  training,  —  one  of  the  most  important 
features  of  the  kindergarten.  On  the  whole,  the  child  is  led  un- 
consciously from  the  created  to  the  Creator. 

B.  M.  Bosse. 

Then  Aunt  Emma  herself  wrote  a  few  lines.  Some- 
times, she  said,  wre  would  play  geography,  especially  on 
Fridays,  when  the  older  children  and  all  the  little  ones 


270  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

play  together.  For  instance,  we  would  have  a  scene 
amongst  the  Esquimaux.  The  little  ones  would  cut  all 
the  snow  out  of  tiny  pieces  of  white  paper,  and  the 
older  ones  Esquimaux,  and  the  babies  and  dogs  and 
canoes.  Miss  Daisy  would  cut  a  sledge  and  some  rein- 
deer in  front. 

The  huts  were  made  of  sand.  On  the  ocean  there 
were  the  seals  and  the  walruses,  also  of  paper.  We 
stuck  in  some  sea-moss  and  tiny  little  bits  of  trees,  and 
one  day  we  had  real  smoke  coming  out  of  one  of  the 
huts ;  and  Georgie  brought  some  gray  squirrel-skins, 
and  Aunt  Clare  got  from  the  furrier  a  whole  cartful 
of  furs,  from  the  polar  bear  to  the  gray  fox.  We  had 
a  splendid  time  with  all  this,  and  Prescott  was  quite 
astonished  at  the  fur  he  had  on  his  own  head,  and 
that  it  pained  him  severely  when  we  tried  to  pull  one 
of  his  hairs  out.  Miss  Leonie  was  quite  an  artist  in 
laying  out  parks.  They  were  very  beautiful,  with  tem- 
ples, grottos  and  islands,  ponds  and  trees,  lawns  and 
flower-beds,  the  borders  made  with  the  tiniest  flowers 
we  could  find. 

For  the  walks,  she  took  a  brick  from  the  fourth  gift, 
with  which  she  pushed  the  sand  gently  aside,  and  her 
curves  and  drives  would  have  served  any  landscape 
gardener.  Of  course,  that  inspired  every  child,  young 
or  old,  for  the  work  in  the  sand  table.  Every  Friday, 
when  we  all  assembled  in  the  three  large  rooms  thrown 
into  one,  the  sand  table  presented  a  feature.     Each  kin- 


THE   SAND   TABLE.  271 

dergartener  of  the  training  class  was  expected  to  take 
her  turn  in  laying  out  the  sand  table,  sometimes  illus- 
trating a  story.  The  possibility  for  doing  this  was 
greatly  increased  by  having  all  sorts  of  objects  to  illus- 
trate an  idea.  There  were  all  kinds  of  animals  (charm- 
ing family  groups  of  German  make),  trees,  carriages, 
houses,  small  dolls,  besides  a  large  box  with  partitions, 
in  which  all  sorts  of  broken  and  unbroken  remnants 
were  kept  to  satisfy  the  creative  inspiration.  A  bureau 
contained  in  different  boxes  our  treasures,  and  the  good 
rule  was,  unfortunately,  not  always  kept,  —  which  may 
be  considered  a  grave  wrong  to  -childhood,  —  namely, 
that  everything,  after  being  used,  should  be  restored 
to  its  own  place,  and  even  counted,  instilling  the  habit 
of  order  and  preventing  dishonesty. 

For  this  purpose,  every  week  a  child  was  appointed 
to  be  either  the  responsible  herder,  gardener,  the  coach- 
man, or  nurse.  The  very  idea,  to  be  a  herder,  or  a 
gardener,  or  a  nurse,  which  sometimes  fell  to  a  boy,  gave 
a  great  deal  of  fun  and  just  aspiration.  The  very  name, 
"herder,"  had  a  magnetic  effect.  This  has  a  similar 
effect  on  grown  people's  inspiration.  Children's  greater 
imaginative  powers  form  the  root  of  their  higher  inspira- 
tion. Children  should  play  just  as  much  by  themselves 
as  in  company.  They  should  have  their  nooks,  and  be 
observed  without  knowing  it.  If  possible,  they  should 
prepare  their  own  nooks,  with  little  or  no  assistance. 
Aunt  Emma  told  of  her  own  childhood,  with  her  sisters 


272  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

and  brothers  and  little  friends  ;  in  having  them  twice  on 
the  top  of  the  wood-shed  and  over  a  stable  to  be  reached 
by  a  ladder ;  where  all  phases  of  life  found,  as  far  as 
known,  a  dramatized  echo. 

At  the  first  place,  they  had  the  assistance  of  a  male 
servant,  and  Robinson  Crusoe  adventures  were  repro- 
duced with  wonderful  truth  and  effect.  At  the  other 
place,  when  a  little  older,  living  with  an  uncle,  a  clergy- 
man, reproductions  were  directed  to  rural  scenes  and 
religious  events,  appearing  in  great  weddings,  baptisms, 
burials,  etc.  The  persons  at  the  weddings  and  funerals, 
sometimes  numbering  forty  of  both  sexes,  were  the  prod- 
ucts of  their  own  ingenuity  in  body  and  mind,  under  the 
earnest  consultation  of  the  aunt's  rag-bags. 

"The  sand  tables,"  said  Aunt  Emma,  "are  indispensable 
for  them."  The  least  observed  nooks  are  the  best.  A 
barn,  a  yard,  a  porch,  are  preferable  in  summer.  Even  the 
sea-shore  should  have  one.  The  older  children  will  lead 
the  small  ones.  Aunt  Emma  found  a  boy  eight  years  old 
who  gave  his  father  no  peace  till  he  had  a  large  sand 
table  in  the  garret,  and  he  carried  there  all  the  earth 
he  needed  from  the  garden  in  a  small  bucket,  three 
flights  up- stairs.  The  mother  pitied  the  boy  and 
wanted  him  to  be  helped,  but  Aunt  Emma,  knowing 
the  child's  nature  and  its  educational  wants,  strongly 
opposed,  on  account  of  the  healthy  self-satisfaction  it 
would  take  away  from  the  child,  besides  the  training 
of  mind  and  muscle. 


THE    DOLLS.  273 


IX.    THE  DOLLS. 

One  day  mamma  asked  of  what  we  should  prefer  to  talk 
—  of  the  dolls,  or  the  plants.  This  aroused  quite  a  little 
dispute.  The  girls  wanted  the  dolls,  and  the  boys  the 
plants  or  the  horses  and  steam  cars.  That  gave  mamma 
something  to  think  so  earnestly  that  she  spoke  to  papa 
about  it.  She  said, — of  course,  all  in  a  good  joke, — 
"Now,  papa,  dear,  you  always  complain  that  I  am  not  so 
much  interested  in  steam  cars,  railroads,  house-building, 
and  a  hundred  other  things.  Now,  do  you  know  how 
that  happens?  We  make  our  little  girls  perfectly  con- 
tented with  the  dolls ;  so  much  so,  that  while  they  are 
less  in  the  street,  they  learn  never  to  observe  and  to  be 
interested  in  those  things  mentioned  above,  as  all  men 
develop  a  great  deal  of  common-sense  and  general  infor- 
mation ;  while  our  little  girls,  by  living  for  and  with  the 
dolls,  arouse  only  feeling,  and  their  whole  interest  in 
life  turns  in  two  directions.  Now,  even  if  I  need  any 
interest  in  these  objects,  I  need  them  for  you  and  my 
boys.  If  I  could  speak  as  sensibly  on  house-building, 
without  being  a  carpenter,  as  our  neighbor  does,  you 
would  talk  with  me  and  with  our  half-grown  boys,  and 
listen  to  our  opinion  with  delight,  instead  of  going  to 
the  neighbors  to  play  cards."  And  then  papa  stopped 
her  from  speaking  by  kissing  her  ever  so  many  times, 
but  mamma  said  that  was  just  the  way  all  papas  did ; 
nevertheless,  she  was  right,  while  papa  replied   it   had 


274  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

been  always  so,  and  therefore  he  thought  it  was  quite  "  as 
it  sliould  be."  To  which  mamma  said,  then  she  would 
use  the  dolls  in  such  a  manner  that  her  little  girls  and 
boys  should  learn  equally  well  to  think  and  to  feel 
through  them.  So  she  told  her  little  girls  to  bring  the 
dolls  for  the  next  morning. 

It  was  long  before  the  time  mamma  had  fixed  for  them 
that  the  whole  little  household  came  with  dolls  in  arms. 
Even  the  boys  carried  some,  and  the  neighbors'  children 
peeped  in  with  their  dolls.  There  was  a  general  giggle 
of  soft,  laughing  voices,  because  no  one  knew  what 
mamma  could  do  with  so  many  dolls,  if  it  was  not  for  a 
dancing  party.  But  it  was  not  a  dancing  party  at  all. 
Mamma  herself  had  prepared  a  beautiful  little  cradle,  and 
in  it  a  tiny  little  baby.  We  all  were  delighted.  Mamma 
asked  us  what  we  knew  of  the  babies,  and  of  little  cat 
and  dog  babies  we  had  seen,  and  in  what  they  were 
different  from  their  mammas.  So  we  had  lots,  and  lots 
of  fun ;  and  then  mamma  told  some  beautiful  stories 
about  the  care  and  love  of  all  mammas,  even  of  the 
cats  and  dogs ;  and  when  she  kissed  us  each,  reminding 
us  that  we  were  all  so  very,  very  little,  as  little  once 
as  the  little  speck  in  the  egg  of  the  chicken  she  would 
show  us  next  time,  and  that  she  had  tried  to  make  us 
grow  to  be  good  and  happy,  —  qualities  not  to  be  sep- 
arated. We  all  promised  to  love  her  dearly  and  our 
little  baby  ever  so  much,  when  the  postman  came  with 
a  big  letter  from  Aunt  Emma,  that  she  really  had  for- 


FRIDAY,    THE   DAY  IN   COMMON.  275 

gotten  the  description  of  Friday,  the  day  in  common 
at  her  school,  and  that  she  had  been  asked  some  years 
ago  by  a  gentleman  to  give  a  description  in  short  of 
the  purposes  of  her  circular  system,  and  the  method 
how  to  apply  it  in  a  four-years'  course  in  the  kinder- 
garten, and  so  she  was  sending  it  to  mamma. 

X.    FRIDAY,  THE  DAY  IN  COMMON. 

Just  imagine  a  lofty  room,  sixty  by  forty  feet  in 
size,  with  scarlet  curtains  hanging  down  to  soften  into 
a  magic  light  the  bright  sun  of  the  day.  The  vases, 
filled  with  fresh  flowers,  fill  the  room  with  sweetness 
and  balm.  Prang's  flower  pictures  and  those  of  Ville- 
marin,  of  Paris,  give  the  first  division  of  the  room  the 
name  "flower  room,"  while  the  second  is  for  similar 
reasons  the  animal,  and  the  third  the  man-animal  room. 
The  sand  table  has  taken  a  fresh  dress,  and  glories  in 
an  artistically  arranged  copy  of  the  Golden  Gate  Park. 
From  thirty  to  forty  beautiful  little  chairs,  with  a  black- 
walnut  movable  table  in  front,  are  placed  in  an  oval 
form,  and  great  pains  has  been  taken  to  make  this  form 
perfect. 

The  recess — that  is,  a  sound,  healthy,  free  out-door 
sport,  changing  with  some  appropriate  out-door  games, 
but  on  Friday  turned  into  a  "clearing-up  day  in  com- 
mon," in  order  to  keep  the  garden  and  the  play-grounds 
in  good  order  —  is  just  over, 


276  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

A  fresh,  melodious  march  leads  all,  large  and  small, 
in  the  room,  and  marching  once  around  the  circle  each 
one  takes  his  place,  while  the  young  students  take  their 
seats  to  be  at  hand  as  first,  second,  and  third  assist- 
ants.    Aunt  Emma  takes  her  place  at  one  end. 

The  general  programme  is  "to  work  in  common  for 
each  other."  From  this  stand-point  each  effort  is 
weighed  and  judged,  and  has  proved  an  educational 
success  beyond  expectation,  especially  as  regards  the 
very  young  children.  Long  essays  on  botany  and  geog- 
raphy are  followed  with  mutual  attention  by  the  smallest 
children,  without  any  other  means  than  a  cultivated  moral 
force.  And  vice  versa,  every  little  story  told  by  a  four- 
year-old  little  adventurer  is  respected,  and  generally 
encouragingly  applauded.  While  not  a  sound  of  dis- 
turbance is  heard,  a  glowing,  happy  expression  can  be 
read  from  each  face,  young  and  old.  Every  extra  good 
result  of  efforts  to  perfection  is  presented  to  me,  and 
received  by  a  most  animating,  loving  spirit  on  my  part. 
We  feel  the  living  with  each  other.  We  are  all  united 
in   a   true   fructifying   educational   atmosphere. 

A  story  and  the  sand  table  are  the  gems  of  the  hour, 
not  less  the  group  work  by  dictation  from  the  third  to 
the  seventh  and  ninth  gift,  by  four  children.  A  short 
recess,  and  the  tableaux  vivant  —  for  such  it  is  really  — 
is  changed.  Groups  of  from  four  to  six  children  cluster 
around  the  kindergartener,  young  normal  scholars  form- 
ing  small   rings  in  the  large  one.      These  young  ladies 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  277 

guidingly  assist  in  the  individual  work  each  group  has 
chosen  by  its  free  will.  This  ranges  from  the  making  of 
the  crystalline  forms  to  the  making  of  furniture  for  the 
doll-house,  sewing  for  the  dolls  and  dressing  them.  (See 
Aunt  Emma's  pattern.)  The  painting  of  plaques,  the 
cutting  of  fruit  and  flowers  in  paper  derived  from  the 
circle ;  likewise  the  inventive  circular  paper  cutting,  and 
pasting  downwards  common  to  all  kindergarten  occupa- 
tions, till  the  modeling  for  the  last  three  quarters  of  an 
hour  completes  the  spiritualized  practice  in  social  train- 
ing, namely,  one  living  in  all,  and  all  in  one. 

11  All  are  but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole, 
Whose  body  Nature  is,  and  God  the  soul, 
That  changed  this  all  and  yet  in  all  the  same." 

Pope. 


XI.      HOW  BOTANY  IS   PLAYED  IN  THE  NURSERY 
AND   KINDERGARTEN. 

Dear  children,  to  do  anything  you  must  have  knowl- 
edge, and  this  knowledge  you  can  only  gain,  as  I  have 
said  often  before,  by  loving  to  find  out  things.  In  a 
kindergarten    wre   think    we  have    the    true    beginning, 

O  ©  ©  ' 

since  we  begin  first  with  the  objects  we  love  most,  and 
which  are  nearest  to  us,  either  at  home  or  in  our  kinder- 
garten. 

The  dolls,  for  example,  and  the  kittens,  and  dogs,  and 
ponies,  and  the  flowers  we  have  in  our  gardens  or  in  our 
windows,  you  would   almost   think,  indeed,  to   hear  us 


278  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

talk  sometimes,  that  all  these  objects  were  equally  alive 
and  lovable.  But,  after  all,  the  children  soon  feel  and 
find  out  the  differences,  and  this  really  is  just  all  we 
mean  by  that  big  word,  "unfolding,"  that  you  have  heard 
so  often. 

Like  this  :  one  day  all  the  dolls  were  seated  next  their 
little  mothers  in  the  kindergarten,  while  we  told  some 
very  nice  stories,  and  none  of  the  dolls  laughed  or 
clapped  their  hands,  or  jumped  up  from  their  seats, 
although  they  had  eyes  that  could  be  opened  and  shut, 
and  heads,  arms,  and  legs  that  could  be  moved,  and  even 
mouths  and  squeaky  voices.  And  the  question  came  up, 
why  the  dolls  should  not  do  like  the  children,  since  they 
looked  so  much  like  them.  One  boy  said  he  thought 
there  was  no  difference,  as  some  dolls  had  real  hair,  and 
real  ear-rings,  and  had  to  be  washed  when  they  were 
dirty,  and  could  say,  "Mamma."  And  Georgie  said, 
"Yes,  dolls  were  even  better  than  babies,  for  his  little 
sister  could  not  speak,  and  had  no  teeth."  Then  the 
children  all  laughed.  A  little  while  afterwards  we  were 
singing  FroebePs  song,  beginning,  — 

11  This  is  the  mother  so  good  and  dear, 
This  is  the  father  with  hearty  cheer,"  — 

and  Marion  broke  out  in  the  midst  of  the  singing  with, 
"  Oh !  now  I  know  what  is  the  matter  with  the  dolls  : 
they  have  no  grandfathers  at  all !  " 

"No,"  answered  Irving,  "that  is  so,  and  anybody  with 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  279 

fifty  cents  in  his  pocket  can  buy  some  kind  of  a  doll,  but 
you  cannot  buy  any  kind  of  a  little  sister  with  a  grand- 
father." 

"No,  and  you  cannot  give  the  little  sister  away,  either," 
said  Alice.  And  so  we  found  out  many  differences,  but 
the  greatest  one,  after  all,  was  that  the  doll  had  no  grand- 
father, that  is,  no  life,  and  we  all  decided  that  not  the 
cleverest  person  in  the  world  could  make  a  live  doll. 
The  next  morning,  however,  Giles  came  in,  saying  that 
he  could  make  things  alive ;  he  only  wanted  a  flower-pot 
and  some  earth  and  some  water.  The  children  gathered 
round,  and  followed  him  about  to  see  him  do  this.  He 
took  some  tiny  packages  from  his  pocket,  and  putting  his 
finger  into  one  of  them  he  looked  around,  and  said  in  a 
loud  voice,  "This  I  make  alive  into  a  phlox ;  and  this" 
(taking  from  another  paper)  "  I  make  alive  into  a  poppy  ; 
and  this  I  make  alive  into  a  bean." 

So  the  children  all  watched  him,  and  did  not  want  to 
sit  down  until  all  these  things  should  be  seen  alive.  This 
troubled  Master  Giles  very  much,  and  he  had  to  confess 
he  himself  was  very  far  from  being  able  to  make  things 
alive,  and  his  power  did  not  go  further  than  to  supply  the 
earth,  and  the  moisture,  and  the  sun  warmth  which  the 
seeds  needed,  and  that  then  some  wonderful  power 
inside  of  them  did  the  rest.  But  he  insisted  that  his 
seeds  were  the  mothers  of  the  baby  plants  which  would 
grow,  and  that  there  was  hardly  any  difference  between  a 
baby  plant  and  a  real  baby,  because  they  both  grew  big- 


280  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

ger  and  bigger,  and  they  both  ate  and  drank,  and  needed 
to  be  kept  warm,  and  both  had  fathers  and  mothers. 

But  Arthur  thought  cat  babies  and  dog  babies  were 
more  like  real  babies,  because  they  cried,  and  moved 
about,  and  loved  their  mammas. 

"But  still  they  are  very  different,"  remarked  Minnie; 
"  babies  would  not  eat  living  mice  like  a  cat,  nor  crack 
bones  like  a  dog." 

Willie  came  in  just  then,  with  a  handful  of  "dirt,"  as 
he  called  it,  and  Rose  said  that  must  be  washed  and 
made  clean  for  the  flowers  to  eat ;  and  then  all  wanted  to 
know  how  the  flowers  could  eat  dirt,  and  still  be  so  clean 
and  sweet.  And  Giles  said  he  had  seen  a  pig  eating  dirt, 
and  pigs  were  quite  clean,  for  they  were  put  on  the  break- 
fast-table for  us  to  eat. 

And  in  this  way  we  learned  a  great  deal  from  day  to 
day  :  that  is,  each  one  found  out  for  himself.  And  since  I 
know  that  what  was  learned  in  this  way  the  children  never 
forgot,  —  besides  having  so  very  much  pleasure  while 
they  were  learning, — I  have  wanted  you  to  have  similar 
pleasure  in  your  own  experiences,  and  have  prepared 
these  books  just  to  help  you  to  use  and  enjoy  what  may 
easily  come  into  your  e very-day  life.  By  studying  plants 
and  comparing  them  with  other  forms  of  life,  you  will 
find  out  a  thousand  things  of  interest  you  would  other- 
wise miss.  Suppose,  for  instance,  you  thought  about  the 
ways  in  which  plants  resemble  yourselves ;  for  do  you 
not   always   find   yourselves   more   ready   to   like   those 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  281 

things  or  persons  who  have  qualities  in  common  with 
you?  Well,  have  you  ever  thought  about  how  the  flowers 
are  like  your  lustrous  brown  or  golden  heads  and  shining 
eyes?  Think  of  pansies,  and  how  they  remind  you  of 
bright,  laughing,  baby  faces ;  think  how  plants  love  the 
sun  and  stretch  themselves  toward  it,  just  as  you  stretch 
out  your  hands  toward  the  nice,  warm  fire  ;  how  they  feel 
the  cold,  too,  and  suffer  just  as  you  suffer  if  you  throw 
off  the  bedclothes  when  you  are  asleep,  on  a  cold  night ; 
and  they  get  hungry  and  thirsty,  and  grow  thin  and  pale 
and  drooping,  if  they  are  starved.  They  are  willing  to 
work  for  a  living,  like  industrious  boys  and  girls,  but 
being  obliged  to  stay  in  the  spot  where  they  are  planted, 
they  must  be  able  to  find  what  they  need  not  too  far  from 
them,  though  they  will  sometimes  dig  a  great  distance 
down  in  the  ground  hunting  for  water. 

They  are  able,  like  you,  to  bear  long  journeys,  too, 
if  some  kind  person  will  see  that  they  are  fed  on  the 
way.  Plants  whose  home  is  in  Africa  have  moved  to  this 
country  and  settled  down  to  bring  up  large  families 
of  children,  although  they  are  frequently  homesick  for 
their  own  hot  native  land,  and  so  are  a  little  weaker  and 
less  beautiful  than  at  home.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
some  plants  have  emigrated  from  Switzerland  and  from 
England,  and  they  seem  to  love  America  dearly,  and  to 
thrive  most  lustily  here.  You  know  some  people  have 
careful  histories  kept  in  their  families  of  their  grand- 
fathers and   grandmothers,  on  both  sides ;    and  just    So 


282  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

gardeners  have  done  for  some  families  of  plants,  and 
they  can  trace  their  ancestry  very  far  back,  and  know 
just  what  improvements  have  been  made.  For  there, 
again,  they  are  like  you  !  They  can  improve  very  much 
by  having  the  proper  care  and  education.  Look  at  the 
poppy.  From  a  simple  wild  flower  with  four  petals,  it 
has  changed  by  means  of  men's  care  until  it  is  a  full, 
round,  snowy  ball,  as  big  as  your  fist.  And  so  with  the 
sweet-brier  or  wild  rose.  Just  try  to  count  the  hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  different  kinds  of  roses  that  have 
sprung  from  that  wayside  wildling.  And  the  little  thin- 
skinned  lime,  would  you  believe  it  to  be  the  mother  of 
the  great,  odorous,  oily,  juicy  lemon  and  orange,  which 
add  so  much  to  the  agreeableness  of  your  life?  Then, 
again,  to  return  to  their  likeness  to  you:  does  not  the 
morning-glory,  like  some  girls,  draw  its  hood  close  when 
the  sun  gets  too  hot?  And  speaking  of  the  morning- 
glory  reminds  me  of  climbing,  and  that  is  another  like- 
ness. The  ivy  climbs  with  its  hands,  we  may  say,  for  it 
puts  out  little  fingers,  and  catches  hold  and  climbs  higher, 
just  like  a  boy.  Then  what  is  it  you  do  at  night  when 
you  can  no  longer  play  or  work  ?  You  sleep.  So  do  the 
plants,  and,  like  you,  they  grow  fastest  while  they  are 
asleep  ;  for  then  their  blood,  which  runs  all  about  through 
their  veins  just  as  yours  does,  —  only  we  call  it  "  sap  "  in 
them, — is  very  busy  building  up  their  bodies,  and  so 
using  up  the  food  which  was  taken  in  through  the  day. 
Not  that  all  plants  go  to  sleep  at   the  same   hour  and 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  283 

wake  at  the  same  hour.  No  ;  but  they  have  regular  habits 
of  sleeping,  nevertheless.  For  instance,  the  flowers  of 
one  family  have  a  habit  of  shutting  up  their  petals  at 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  opening  them  again  at 
four  the  next  morning,  and  they  never  have  to  be  told 
about  it.  Others  are  like  owls  or  the  editors  of  morn- 
ing papers,  they  sleep  through  the  day  and  wake  at  the 
same  time  every  evening;  and  so  on,  each  kind  keeping 
the  family  habit  through  centuries. 

Another  resemblance  to  the  human  family  I  will  men- 
tion. All  little  children  have  papas  and  mammas,  you 
know,  and  so  have  all  flower  babies.  It  is  true,  these 
vegetable  parents  usually  resemble  each  other  more 
exactly  than  human  papas  and  mammas  do,  but  some- 
times they  are  even  more  different  from  each  other  in 
appearance  than  are  your  own  dear  papa  and  mamma. 
Sometimes,  indeed,  the  flower  papa  lives  on  an  entirely 
separate  tree,  or  bush,  from  the  flower  mamma,  as  in  the 
date-palm  and  others ;  but  when  he  does,  he  is  always 
sending  her  love  messages  and  gifts  by  the  birds  and  the 
bees.  There  is  one  curious  tree  which  grows  in  Mexico 
and  the  West  Indies,  and  of  which  I  give  you  a  picture 
on  page  1  of  Aunt  Emma's  Drawing-Book  No.  5. 

Here  is  the  whole  family  on  one  tree, — both  parents 
and  a  dozen  or  so  of  children,  —  but  the  flower  papa 
does  not  look  the  least  in  the  world  like  the  flower 
mamma.  He  is  a  tall,  soldierly  looking  fellow,  and  she 
a  flat  little  rosy  thing. 


284  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

The  most  wonderful  thing,  though — yes,  I  must  tell 
you  about  that !  —  the  most  wonderful  thing  is  about 
the  cradles  of  the  babies  —  that  is,  the  seeds,  of  course  — 
and  the  arrangement  by  which  they. are  sent  away  when 
they  are  old  enough  to  leave  home  and  begin  life  for 
themselves.  On  the  branch  in  the  picture  you  will 
notice,  besides  the  military  papa  and  the  daisy-like 
mamma,  an  odd-looking,  deeply  fluted  fruit,  a  little 
more  than  two  inches  in  diameter,  flat  like  a  cymling 
squash,  and  very  green.  This,  my  dear  children,  is  a 
bundle  of  cradles.  Each  one  of  the  deep  scallops  forms 
a  complete  little  box, — I  call  it  a  cradle,  —  and  each 
cradle  holds  a  seed ;  we  call  it  a  plant  baby.  Think  of 
a  dozen  cradles,  sometimes  a  dozen  and  a  half,  fitted 
together  in  that  way  !  Well,  when  the  seeds  are  ripe, 
what  do  you  suppose  happens?  You  would  expect,  per- 
haps, to  see  the  outside  and  inside  walls  of  the  little 
boxes  get  thin  and  dry  and  brittle  and  crumble  away  as 
you  have  seen  seed-pods  do  so  often,  and  the  seeds  fall 
out.  Not  a  bit  of  it.  Everything  looks  just  as  usual, 
when  suddenly  one  day,  if  you  should  be  near,  you 
would  hear  a  loud  crackling  noise,  like  a  rifle-shot,  and 
you  would  see  this  fluted  fruit  burst  all  to  pieces,  each 
one  of  the  little  cradles  flying  in  a  different  direction 
with  the  seeds  still  in  it. 

These  are  not  the  only  plants  that  have  queer  fash- 
ions of  sending  the  young  ones  out  to  be  independent, 
but  of  the   others   we   shall   speak   later.     Meantime   I 


HOW    BOTAKY   IS    PLAYED.  285 

want  you  to  know  that,  like  human  papas,  all  the  flower 
papas  have  a  way  of  sending  gifts  to  the  mammas.  Not 
just  gold  wedding  rings,  but  something  like  gold  dust, 
nevertheless,  and  more  lovely  than  gold  this  shining 
powder  is  which  they  send,  and  which  has  the  power 
of  making  the  baby  plants  grow.  Wonderful,  too,  is  the 
way  they  often  accomplish  the  delivery  of  these  pres- 
ents. Sometimes  it  is  a  honey-bee  that  is  their  messen- 
ger, or  a  bumble-bee  that  loads  up  his  fat  thighs  with 
the  yellow  powder,  and  flies  away  to  the  other  flower 
with  it ;  or  a  humming-bird  poking  a  friendly  nose  into 
other  people's  business,  and  being  asked  to  carry  a  gift. 
Sometimes  the  wind,  that  never  seems  to  get  tired  car- 
rying all  manner  of  things,  gladly  undertakes  the  errand. 
But  whatever  does  it,  you  may  be  sure  it  is  a  part  of 
God's  plan  for  getting  it  done. 

Like  you,  again,  the  plants  find  it  necessary  to 
breathe,  only  you  will  find  their  way  of  breathing  is 
not  like  yours,  but  like  that  of  the  insects.  How  is 
that,  now? 

Then  they  have  skins,  too,  and  will  bleed  when  they 
are  cut.  And  although  their  food  is  generally  unlike 
yours,  indeed,  is  made  up  of  the  different  salts  and  min- 
erals which  you  could  not  eat  at  all,  unless  the  plants 
ate  them  first  and  digested  them  for  you,  still,  some 
plants  eat  meat !  Yes,  you  may  open  your  eyes,  but 
plants  do  eat,  not  only  flies  and  bugs,  even  fishes, 
which  they  catch  for  themselves   in  cunning  traps  they 


286  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

set,  or  by  means  of  a  sticky  fly-paper  sort  of  an 
arrangement,  but  they  have  even  been  known  to  eat 
fish  and  beefsteak !  Of  these  singular  flowers  I  will 
tell  you  their  names,  and  give  you  the  pictures  in  the 
book  on  flowers.  Just  now  we  must  find  some  more 
resemblances  between  the  plants  and  yourselves.  For 
instance,  they  have  different  ways  of  being  beautiful ; 
some  have  the  beauty  of  strength,  some  of  form,  some 
of  color,  and  some  seem  beautiful  only  because  they 
are  so  good  and  helpful. 

And  like  human  people,  what  differences  of  beautiful 
dresses  they  have,  too  !  Have  you  ever  watched  from 
the  beginning  what  goes  on  between  the  two  leaves 
which  form  the  dressing-room,  or  shall  we  not  call  it 
the  crib-curtain,  since  the  blossom  is  such  a  wee  thing 
when  it  begins  to  make  its  toilet?  Some  morning  the 
curtains  part,  or  fall  down,  and  there  stands  the  lovely 
thing  beautifully  robed  in  pink  or  purple  or  blue  or 
scarlet,  or  any  one  of  a  hundred  tints,  even  with  two 
or  three  together.  And  so  very  particular  they  are, 
too,  about  the  cut  of  their  gowns,  these  flowers  !  Some 
must  have  them  only  in  one  piece,  some  in  two  pieces, 
some  in  three,  and  others  in  four,  and  five,  and  so  on 
up,  until  some,  like  Miss  Daisy,  have  as  many  as  a 
hundred  pieces  in  their  frocks.  And  each  particular 
cut  has  a  very  particular  name,  a  great  long  name,  too, 
which  is  put  down  and  described  in  books  as  carefully 
as  ladies'  dresses  are  in  the  fashion  papers.     And  how 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  287 

differently  they  wear  their  dresses  !  Some  in  long  sweep- 
ing robes,  trimmed,  perhaps,  with  a  velvet  stripe; 
and  some  in  short,  coquettish,  overlapping  skirts ;  some 
with  points,  and  others  with  fringes  or  scallops,  or  the 
richest  embroidery,  but  no  two  exactly  alike,  even 
though  they  may  be  twin  sisters.  In  one  thing,  how- 
ever, they  all  follow  one  fashion,  and  that  is  in  having 
either  a  yellow  button  or  some  yellow  strings  in  that 
part  of  the  dress  that  is  fastened  to  the  stem.  But 
don't  imagine  the  only  use  of  these  yellow  strings,  or 
pins,  or  buttons,  is  to  fasten  the  dress  in  at  the  waist. 
Oh,  dear,  no  !  They  have  the  most  important  and  won- 
derful duty,  and  that  is  something  I  very  much  wish 
you  to  find  out,  for  I  am  sure  you  will  find  it  more 
interesting  than  any  Christmas  story. 

But  as  I  said  before,  plants  are  like  you  in  being 
able  not  only  to  help  themselves,  but  to  help  others. 
Think  of  their  usefulness!  though  you  can  never  get 
to  the  end  of  it  by  thinking  of  it.  Leaving  out,  now, 
those  which  are  so  serviceable  for  food,  for  clothing, 
for  making  dye-stuffs,  for  building,  for  art,  just  take 
one  glimpse  at  their  uses  to  the  sick.  It  is  believed 
very  earnestly  by  many  that  in  every  country  or  part 
of  the  country  where  a  particular  kind  of  disease  exists, 
there  grows  a  plant  which  will  heal  that  disease.  It  is 
certain,  at  any  rate,  that  if  there  were  only  a  thimbleful 
of  seed  left  of  such  a  plant,  the  biggest  diamond  there 
is  in  the  world  could  not  buy  that  seed.     Many  of  these 


288  CONSCIOUS  MOTHEKHOOD. 

healing  plants  are  poisonous,  it  is  true ;  but  after  all,  a 
poison,  like  many  other  apparently  bad  things,  is  only 
bad  when  it  is  in  the  wrong  place.  Fire  is  very  bad 
when  it  burns  you  or  your  house,  but  it  is  very  good 
and  enjoyable  when  it  warms  you  and  cooks  your  food, 
and  makes  splendid  illuminations  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 

Perhaps  we  have  now  made  comparisons  enough,  and 
as  to  the  food  plants  and  their  usefulness,  I  think  you 
can  tell  me  almost,  if  not  quite,  as  much  as  I  can  tell 
you.  From  the  fields,  if  you  live  in  the  country,  or 
from  the  markets  and  your  own  tables  in  town,  you 
can  cull  a  score  of  examples  of  the  utmost  usefulness, 
even  if  you  left  out  the  fruits  so  much  loved  by  all, 
because  we  carry  them  to  our  sick  friends  to  give  them 
pleasure. 

But  now,  if  we  are  ready,  let  us  get  to  work.  I  sup- 
pose you  will  say  getting  ready  is  a  part  of  the  work, 
and  you  are  right.  What  we  have  been  doing,  then, 
in  stirring  the  soil  of  your  minds  to  receive  the  seeds  of 
thought,  and  in  warming  your  hearts  that  the  germs  of 
knowledge  may  swell  and  grow,  is  just  what  the  gardener 
does  in  the  spring ;  more  than  that,  your  eyes  have 
been  opened  and  your  fingers  trained,  and  your  color 
sense  improved  by  the  circles  and  colors  and  flower-like 
forms  of  Book  No.  1,  and  now  you  shall  be  promoted 
to  study,  and  handle,  and  picture  the  forms  of  life. 

We  are  now  about  to  enter  the  fruit  kingdom.  You 
will    remember   we   crowned    the    bread-fruit   king    of 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  289 

fruits,  and  he  reigns  over  a  kingdom  whose  plenty  and 
delightsomeness  we  can  hardly  find  words  to  express. 

Well,  how  shall  we  study  them?  Not  in  books  or 
in  hearing.  Some  one  talk  of  them?  No,  indeed;  as  far 
as  possible,  let  us  make  the  acquaintance  of  each  fruit 
by  itself,  beginning  with  that  tiny  speck  called  the 
germ,  watching  it  sprout,  watching  how  and  when  it 
blooms,  whether  the  leaves  come  first,  or  the  blossoms 
come  first,  noticing  how  long  it  takes  the  fruit  to  ripen, 
what  color  it  has,  whether  we  eat  it  green  or  ripe,  and 
everything  else  of  interest  about  it.  And  when  you 
are  fully  acquainted  with  it,  then  you  want  to  make  a 
portrait  of  it  in  many  different  ways.  You  will  have 
noticed  a  picture  of  a  rubber  ball  on  page  1.  I  want 
each  one  of  you  to  have  a  soft  hollow  ball  like  this  pic- 
tured one,  made  on  purpose.  On  the  next  page  you  see 
the  gourd,  which  is  only  a  live  ball,  pictured  in  three 
ways ;  first  in  black,  then  in  its  natural  color,  and  third  as 
it  looks  when  cut  open,  and  showing  the  seeds  surrounded 
by  their  spare  food. 

Below  this  you  see  empty  circles.  In  the  empty 
circles  on  each  page  you  are,  of  course,  to  copy  the 
drawings  you  see  in  the  upper  circles,  but  you  will  be 
sure  to  want  more  room ;  you  will  so  eagerly  find  out 
for  yourselves  other  growths  akin  to  these,  which  have 
the  same  inner  arrangement,  the  same  way  of  having 
the  seeds  taken  care  of  inside  the  protecting  body  of 
the  mamma  fruit,  where,  like  the  chick  in  the  egg,  they 


290  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

find  food  and  drink  until  they  can  do  for  themselves. 
Taking  the  gourd  family,  for  instance,  with  its  cousins 
and  its  aunts,  the  cucumbers,  melons,  etc. 

Well,  to  provide  for  your  independent  discovery  and 
drawing,  I  have  caused  stubs  or  little  ends  of  leaves  to 
be  placed  in  these  drawing-books,  and  your  interest 
and  industry  will  be  proved  by  the  number  of  leaves 
you  paste  in  here  containing  pictures  of  fruits,  for 
which  you  have  no  model  in  the  book.  As  to  the 
pages  in  which  you  find  a  picture,  and  of  which  I  pre- 
sent you  several  in  each  book,  you  are  to  use  them 
just  as  you  like.  You  may  draw  them  as  they  are 
represented,  without  circles,  or  you  may  arrange  the 
whole  according  to  your  fancy,  and  construct  pictures 
as  you  like  them. 

Another  thing,  you  already  know  by  experience  how 
numerous  is  the  peach  family  and  the  apple  family,  and 
so  on.  Now  a  great  pleasure  and  advantage  will  come 
to  you  if  you  will  have  a  little  book  in  which  to  write 
down  the  name,  the  habits,  the  taste,  color,  season  of 
ripening,  and  special  qualities  of  each  of  these  fruits 
as  fast  as  you  can  find  out  about  them.  I  do  not  mean 
those  fruits  only,  but  I  have  named  them  because  I 
know  you  will  be  so  surprised  to  find  what  an  immense 
variety  there  is  of  these. 

And  now  to  go  back  to  our  studies.  The  gourd 
family,  with  which  you  began,  is  quite  large,  too,  and 
I  trust  you  will   inquire  very  carefully  into  the  family 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  291 

relations,  for  it  is  an  interesting  group.  I  myself  have 
just  seen  some  very  curious  cousins  of  the  gourd  family 
from  Russia  and  from  Japan.  You  will  recognize  the 
kinship  by  the  similarity  of  the  leaf  forms,  by  the 
flowers,  and  by  their  manner  of  growth,  although  the 
surface,  flesh,  shape,  and  color  of  the  fruit  differ  greatly 
in  different  varieties.  These  likenesses  and  differences 
are  just  what  I  want  you  to  observe  and  describe,  and 
to  add  to  them  any  new  quality  that  you  perceive. 
This  is  what  we  do  in  the  kindergarten,  and  you  cannot 
imagine  the  pleasure  it  gives  us.  It  brings  together 
the  older  and  younger  little  playmates,  and  I  assure 
you  it  is  not  greater  age  that  succeeds  best;  it  is 
rather  the  quickness  of  the  sparkling  little  eyes  wide 
open  to  see  everything,  the  warmth  of  the  little 
heart  ready  to  love  every  beautiful  object,  and  to  hold 
on  to  the  memory  of  it  by  associating  one  thing  with 
another. 

Should  you  not  like  to  have  me  give  you  the  history  of 
one  of  those  happy  hours  ?  It  may  help  you  to  see  how 
best  to  draw  out  this  knowledge  of  the  fruit. 

Several  of  the  children  are  out  of  their  seats.  One 
little  boy  holds  the  rubber  ball,  whose  pictures  you  have 
on  page  1,  a  little  girl  holds  a  gourd,  and  a  little  boy 
named  Isadore  stands  ready,  chalk  in  hand,  to  draw 
something  on  the  black-board,  the  rest  of  the  children 
having  their  slates,  rubber  balls,  and  gourds,  waiting  to 
draw,  to  describe,  and  compare. 


292  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Prescott  begins  his  story :  w  The  rubber  ball  I  have  in 
my  hand  is  like  the  gourd ;  it  is  round." 

Just  here,  Lester,  who  is  something  of  a  martinet,  says  : 
w  May  I  tell  that  he  forgot  to  speak  of  the  general  quali- 
ties which  belong  to  the  ball  and  all  other  objects?  That 
is,  that  it  has  shape,  color,  surface,  weight,  the  power  of 
taking  up  space,  and  gravitation."  This  order  of  things 
being  Lester's  hobby,  we  all  laugh,  and  then  Prescott 
goes  on  :  "  The  ball  has  also  special  qualities  in  which  it 
is  like  the  gourd ;  that  is,  they  are  — 

"Alike,  in  shape  :  both  round. 

"Alike,  in  having  no  corners  or  edges. 

"Alike,  in  both  moving  easily  on  account  of  standing  on 
so  small  a  space."  And  here  Minnie  breaks  in  with : 
"Yes,  indeed,  and  that  is  why  they  both  run  so  fast, 
and  why  it  is  hard  to  stop  them.  So  very  different  from 
Mr.  Cylinder,  who  can't  roll  fast  because  he  rolls  so  much 
of  his  body  on  the  ground ;  and  not  a  bit  like  Mr.  Cube, 
who  can't  roll  at  all,  but  just  sits  down  and  takes  up  as 
much  space  as  ever  he  can  cover,  and  when  he  turns 
over,  and  that  isn't  easy,  he  gets  another  big  place  to 
stay  in,  and  so  he  stops,  and  thinks  he  would  rather 
rest;  but  Mrs.  Sphere  runs  round  him  ten  times  while 
he  is  turning  over."  And  we  all  played  with  these 
so-much  loved  members  of  the  family,  namely,  Mrs. 
Sphere,  Mr.  Cube,  and  their  son,  Master  Cylinder,  and 
had  a  most  jolly  time.  Then  we  proceeded  a  few  days 
after :  — 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  293 

"  Unlike,  in  color :  one  gray,  the  other  yellow,"  said 
Mag. 

"  Unlike  :  the  ball  made  by  man,  the  gourd  made  by 
God,"  said  Edith. 

Unlike  :  the  ball  soft,  the  gourd  hard. 

Up  speaks  Irving  :  "  The  ball  can  be  pressed  into  deep 
hollows  and  it  jumps  up  again,  but  if  you  try  to  make  a 
hollow  in  a  gourd,  it  breaks  in  pieces."  "If  you  save  the 
pieces,"  says  Marion,  "you  can  glue  them  together,  but 
it  will  never  roll  so  well  again." 

"The  ball  always  stays  the  same  size,"  goes  on  Pres- 
cott,  "  but  the  gourd  gets  bigger  and  bigger  from  a  little 
speck  as  big  as  a  pinhead  until  it  gets  ripe  enough  to 
turn  yellow,  and  then  it  does  not  grow  any  more." 

;r  Yes,"  calls  out  Mamie,  "  and  that  part  of  it  as  big  as 
a  pinhead  is  a  tiny  green  knob  just  at  the  bottom  of  the 
flower,  and  it  keeps  on  getting  larger  and  the  flower 
getting  limp  and  dry  until  after  a  while  the  flower  is  all 
gone.  I  saw  one  blooming  in  our  garden  last  year." 
This  brought  up  a  long  talk  on  the  likenesses  and  differ- 
ences of  the  cucumber  or  gourd  flower  and  the  cabbage 
flower ;  the  first  were  described  as  being  in  the  shape  of 
a  funnel,  and  the  last  like  a  star.  After  that,  Isadore 
went  on  to  say  that  tne  ball  was  unlike  the  gourd,  be- 
cause it  could  not  start  to  run  without  being  pushed, 
while  the  gourd  not  only  runs  and  runs  of  itself,  but 
fastens  itself  by  its  vine  and  climbs  up  trees,  and  over 
fences,  and  gets  into  other  people's  grounds.     Unlike, 


294  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

because  the  ball  cannot  be  eaten  at  all,  while  many  of 
the  gourd  family  are  very  nice  to  eat  for  man  and  ani- 
mals. "We  never  eat  gourds,"  said  Jessie,  a  little  mite 
from  Kentucky ;  "  but  we  make  ours  grow  with  crooked 
long  necks,  and  then  they  cut  out  a  big  hole  in  the 
side,  and  then  they  have  a  nice  water-dipper." 

At  this,  all  children  turned  astonished  eyes  on  Jessie, 
and  Giles  said,  "You  can't  make  a  gourd  grow  with  a 
long  neck  unless  it  is  a  long-necked  kind  of  gourd " ; 
while  Minnie,  who  was  thinking  of  the  first  part  of  what 
Jessie  said,  turned  towards  her  with,  "  Nobody  eats 
gourds,  but  a  pumpkin  is  a  kind  of  gourd  for  a  cow,  and 
I  am  sure  you  would  eat  a  squash  pie."  Then  Willie 
said,  — 

"  The  ball  is  unlike  in  being  made  of  rubber,  and  rub- 
ber is  made  of  the  gum  of  a  tree,  while  the  gourd  is  made 
of  the  different  things  that  it  feeds  itself  with  out  of  the 
earth  and  the  air,  just  as  we  are  made  of  what  we  eat." 

By  this  time,  the  clock  held  its  longest  finger  straight 
up,  to  show  us  that  our  time  was  past ;  and  although  I 
have  not  told  you  half  that  we  said,  nor  how  many  nice 
round  pictures  of  balls  and  gourds  the  little  ones  had 
meanwhile  made  on  their  slates,  Tsadore  making  his  on 
the  black-board,  comparing  and  admiring  each  other's 
work,  still  I  have  told  you  enough,  and  we  all  looked 
forward  with  great  interest  to  the  next  talk  about  the 
gourd,  for  we  had  decided  to  have  it  cut  open,  and  find 
out  all  about  its  seeds,  and  how  they  were  tucked  in  and 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  295 

nourished   by   their  mother.     Susie   now  stood   up   and 
repeated  this  little  rhyme  about  the  gourd :  — 

Roll,  roll,  roll, 

I  am  a  rolling  ball ; 

I  am  a  golden  fairy  tale ; 

My  skin  is  hard,  my  flesh  is  soft, 

I  have  no  head,  nor  hand,  nor  foot. 

Run,  run,  run, 

I  am  as  round  as  the  sun. 

Afterwards  Cleone  said,  about  the  orange  :  — 

Five  little  petals  white 

Around  a  crown  of  gold, 

Fastened  in  a  little  cup 

Full  of  sweet  and  odor. 

"  Come,  little  bee,  oh,  drink  of  me !  " 

"  Come,  little  bird,  oh,  smell  of  me ! " 

Five  little  petals  white 

Around  a  crown  of  gold, 

And  the  wind  blew  the  five  little  petals  off, 

And  with  it,  the  crown  of  gold. 

But  the  sweetness  was  kept  in  the  little  cup, 

And  grew  in  a  ball  of  gold. 

Then  Lester  said,  about  the  melon  :  — 

Run,  run,  run, 

I  am  as  round  as  the  sun ; 

My  mother  kissed  me  from  my  sleep, 

I  stretched  my  arms  to  catch  her  light. 

I  dress  in  green,  I  bloom  in  gold. 

Run,  run,  run, 

I  am  as  round  as  the  sun. 

0  apple  on  the  apple-tree, 

1  wish  to  be  like  thee,  — 


296  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

So  sweet  your  flesh, 
Your  color  so  fresh, 
Your  face  so  smooth, 
Your  taste  so  good. 

0  apple  on  the  apple-tree, 

1  wish  to  be  like  thee. 

On  the  second  page  you  have  the  picture  of  a  perfect 
living  ball,  or  gourd.  You  have  drawn  or  sewed  the 
regular  outlines  of  the  gourd,  in  which  you  placed  the 
forms  of  peaches,  oranges,  and  potatoes,  and  yet  how  dif- 
ferent it  looks  here  !  What  you  made,  looked  more  like 
a  flat  slice  of  a  gourd,  but  in  this  picture  it  looks  so  full, 
as  if  it  stood  out  from  the  page.  This  effect  is  brought 
about  simply  by  knowing  how  to  put  the  little  fine 
lines  heavier  in  one  place  than  another,  which  is  called 
shading.  From  the  gourd  you  will  go  on  to  other  forms 
of  life,  finding  the  greater  pleasure  if  you  study  the 
living  things,  even  while  you  are  copying  the  pictures 
I  gave  you  in  the  book.  For,  by  studying  the  living 
things,  dear  children,  you  learn  more  things  than  their 
life  history  and  appearance.  You  learn  how  the  most 
perfect  seed  will  not  bring  a  perfect  plant  unless  the 
right  kind  of  care  is  given  the  tender  growth,  and  how 
the  least  little  neglect  may  be  enough  to  spoil  and  ruin 
a  young  plant  that  might  have  borne  beautiful  flowers 
and  fruit.  And  you  have  already  seen  that  you  learn 
how  you  are  like  a  plant.  For  you  are,  after  all,  only 
a  human  flower  in  the  great  garden  of  humanity,  and 
but  for  the  care  your  dear  parents  give  you,  you,  too, 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  297 

would  wither  and  die  like  a  neglected  plant.  But  you 
can  do  what  the  plant  cannot.  You  can  help  yourself 
to  be  and  to  grow  what  your  loving  friends  desire, 
and  if  you  do  not  help,  then  all  their  care  will  be  lost. 
Let  these  drawing-books  speak  in  your  favor.  Let  them 
prove  that  you  understand  how  all  this  loving  care  of 
friends  and  teachers  is  bestowed  on  you,  that  you  may 
be  straight  and  strong  and  beautiful  in  body  and  soul, 
and  that  you  may  be  best  able  to  realize  the  great  hap- 
piness of  being  serviceable. 

Passing  on  now,  you  will  see  on  the  page  next  after 
the  gourd  a  melon,  and  the  gourd  and  the  melon  have 
a  great  many  relatives  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  whom 
you  will  only  get  acquainted  with  by  noticing  how  they 
are  arranged  inside  as  to  seeds,  pulp,  etc.  In  fact,  it 
is  by  the  "  inner  construction,"  as  we  call  this  sort  of 
thing,  that  we  are  often  able  to  trace  the  kinship  of 
plants  when  the  outside  looks  puzzle  us.  If  you  judged 
by  the  outside  appearance  only,  you  would  make  the 
most  comical  mistakes  in  trying  to  invite  some  family 
of  the  plant  kingdom  to  a  Thanksgiving  dinner.  The 
only  certain  way  to  group  them  together,  when  other 
tests  fail,  is  to  do  it  as  God  will  judge  us  all  some  day, 
—  by  the  heart.  For  instance,  to  talk  a  little  in  advance 
of  some  of  the  fruits  whose  acquaintance  you  are  about 
to  make ;  here  comes  a  beautifully  delicate  smooth-faced 
oval,  who  says  to  the  door-keeper  where  the  Thanks- 
giving reunion  is  to  held,  "My  grandfather  was  Baron 


298  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Peach,  and  I  want  to  sit  with  the  Peaches."  Not  at 
all,  madam;  your  complexion  and  skin  put  you  on  the 
Plum  side  of  the  table."  But  the  fruit-gardener,  who 
presides,  says,  "  Mrs.  Nectarine  is  right  as  to  where 
she  belongs ;  she  looks  like  a  plum,  but  she  has  the 
rough-pitted  seed  of  the  peach."  Comes  pale  Miss 
Apricot,  with  downy,  peachy  cheek :  "  I,  too,  belong 
to  the  Peach  side  of  the  family,  and  must  be  seated 
among  them."  "No,"  decides  the  fruit-gardener,  as  the 
door-keeper  is  about  to  yield ;  "  Miss  Apricot  belongs 
indeed  to  the  family,  but  her  smooth,  unwrinkled  heart 
puts  her  with  the  Plum  branch  of  it."  And  then  a  for- 
eign cousin  arrives  at  the  door ;  a  swarthy,  handsome 
creature  whom  nobody  knows,  and  it  is  whispered,  she 
comes  from  San  Domingo.  Well,  where  shall  she  sit? 
She  is  as  purple  as  a  plum  and  as  downy  as  a  peach ; 
but  the  stone  is  divided  is  three  parts.  "  Put  her  with 
the  Plums,"  says  the  fruit-gardener,  who  knows  her 
heart. 

A  week  is  a  long  time  to  wait  for  a  looked-for  pleas- 
ure, but  Monday  morning  came  at  last,  and  with  it  the 
opening  of  the  gourd.  Unfortunately,  by  traveling  in 
the  summer  heat,  it  had  lost  some  of  the  juiciness  of 
its  fleshy  inside,  such  as  you  find  in  the  melon,  and 
was  reduced  to  a  mere  brownish  gray  substance. 

The  similarities  of  the  whole  gourd  and  the  half  one 
were  very  few,  much  to  our  regret.  We  found  in  their 
special  qualities  they  were — 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED. 


299 


Alike:     1.  Both  being  named  gourd. 

2.  Both  fruits  of  the  same  kind. 

3.  Same  shape. 

4.  Same  color. 

Unlike  :   1.     In  size  ;  one  being  a  whole  gourd,  the  other 
only  half  of  one. 

2.  In  weight. 

3.  In  taking  space. 

4.  In  the   whole  gourd   being  without    begin- 

ning or  end,  while  the  half  is  like  a 
little  dish  filled  with  gray  stuff,  but  dry, 
not  juicy  like  the  cucumber  and  melon. 


"I  know,"  said  Susie,  "they  are  made  of  gray  threads 
fastened  to  the  sides  of  the  dish  like  tiny  hammocks, 
and  the  seeds  look  like  little  fishes  in  the  hammocks. " 

"Yes,"  Georgie  breaks  in,  eagerly;  "and  don't  you 
see,  the  hammocks  are  fastened  so  evenly,  just  on  the 
places  where  the  darker  stripes  are  on  the  outside  of  the 
gourd?  But  not  threads,  Susie.  Don't  you  remember 
the  fibers  in  the  Ramie  plant  Gerry  had  in  his  garden, 
and  how  we  tried  to  feed  them  to  the  silk-worms  we 
were  raising,  because  the  fibers  you  call  threads  were  so 
silky?" 

"I  remember!  and  the  long  fibers,  too,  we  took  from 
the  bark  of  the  willow-tree,  and  Archie  and  Willie  made 
little  flutes  of  them." 

"But  the  best  fibers  of  all,"  said  Mamie,   "fibers  as 


300  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

strong  as  linen  thread,  were  those  of  the  New  Zealand 
flax.  Yoa  know  how  we  used  to  cut  them  off  near  the 
ground,  and  tie  up  things  with  them?" 

"  Yes,  we  used  that  for  strong  strings,"  said  Anna, 
"  and  they  looked  just  like  big  grass,  only  they  had 
blossoms,  and  they  kept  their  little  black  seed  babies  in 
pods  like  peas.  I  wish  all  children  could  see  these  pods, 
they  are  so  beautiful." 

"But  we  have  forgotten  the  gourd,"  exclaimed  Earl. 
"If  it  were  only  fresh,"  said  he  ruefully.  Upon  that 
we  decided  that  one  of  the  older  children,  in  the  pri- 
mary department,  might  write  a  nice  letter  addressed  to 
the  public  school  at  Los  Angeles,  and  asking  that  some 
of  the  children  there  should  send  by  mail  a  few  of 
these  gourds,  which,  at  Los  Angeles,  grow  like  weeds, 
and  lie  in  the  roads  in  great  numbers  when  the  vines 
have  dried  up  and  broken  off. 

And  now  let  us,  for  a  few  moments,  compare  the 
gourd  and  the  peach ;  not  the  whole  gourd  and  the 
whole  peach,  which,  however  you  must  not  fail  to  do, 
but  (in  order  that  we  may  finish  at  once  this  little 
descriptive  talk)    the  half  gourd  and  the  half  peach* 

At  first,  some  of  the  children  said  they  were  not  alike 
in  anything;  but,  looking  more  carefully,  we  found  that 
they  were  alike  in  many  special  qualities,  as :  — 

Alike  :     1.     Both  come  from  a  plant. 
2.     Both  are  fruits. 


HOW   BOTANY    IS   PLAYED.  301 

3.  Both  grow  from  small  to  big. 

4.  Both  have  skins. 

5.  Both  take  food  from  the  ground. 

6.  Both    carry   their  seeds   in   the   middle   of 

the  body,  and  have  something  all  round 
the  seeds  for  them  to  eat  when  they  first 
begin  to  grow. 

7.  Both   round.     But   to  this   there   were   ob- 

jections. Prescott  said  they  were  round 
like  a  ball  on  one  side,  and  flat  like  a 
cylinder  on  the  other.  But  Marion  re- 
marked that  a  cylinder  was  quite  flat, 
while  the  flat  part  of  the  half  gourd  was 
somewhat  hollow,  and  of  the  half  peach 
was  very  bulging  in  the  middle  where 
the  seed  was. 

Then  we  found,   by  looking  and  talking  further,  that 
they  were  — 

Unlike:  1.  In  shape,  because  the  gourd  was  perfectly 
circular,  while  the  peach  had  quite  a  little 
hollow  place  at  the  end  where  the  stem 
was. 

2.  In  color :  the  gourd  yellow,  the  peach  yel- 

low, red,  and  green. 

3.  In  the  way  the  inside  was  made  :  the  gourd 

having  strings  or  fibers  which  did  not  fill 
it  up  full,  and  the  peach  being  quite  full 


302  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOL. 


of  rich  juice  and  meat   in  the  tiny  holes 


all  through  it. 


"Only  we  do  not  call  them  holes  any  more,"  observes 
our  manly  Earl,  with  all  the  importance  of  his  five  years. 
"They  are  cells,  like  the  cells  in  the  honey-comb,  only  we 
cannot  see  the  cell  walls  of  the  peach,  without  the  mag- 
nify ing-glass." 

This  immediately  brought  out  a  stream  of  information 
about  cells  which  they  had  examined  with  the  magnifying- 
glass  and  without  it. 

4.  The  gourd  cannot  be  eaten ;   the  peach  is 

delightful  food,  and  we  carry  them  to  the 
sick  children  in  the  little  children's  hos- 
pital. 

5.  The  gourd  has   no   taste;  the   peach   has   a 

delicious  taste  of  sweet  and  sour  together. 
Papa  likes  them  very  much. 

6.  The  skin  of  the  gourd  cannot  be  peeled  off; 

that  of  the  peach  can. 

7.  The   gourd   has   a  large  number  of  seeds ; 

the  peach  but  one. 

8.  The  gourd  seeds  can  be  easily  broken ;  the 

peach  seed  cannot. 

9.  The   gourd  grows   on  a   running  vine ;  the 

peach  on  a  tree. 
10.     The  gourd  has  yellow  flowers  coming  after 


HOW  BOTANY  IS  PLAYED.  303 

the  leaves  are  out ;    the  peach  has   pink 
flowers  coming  before  the  leaves. 
11.   The  gourd  has  to  be  planted   anew  every 
year ;     the    peach   bears   fruit   for    many 
years  on  the  same  tree. 

Of  course,  you  will  easily  understand  that  all  these 
talks  and  discoveries  do  not  belong  to  one  lesson.  On 
the  contrary,  what  I  have  told  you  is  the  outcome  of 
many  hours  of  observation  and  enjoyment.  Each  child 
had  to  handle  and  study  and  compare  each  object  under 
consideration,  and  to  find  out  for  himself,  and  then  to 
model  and  draw  it,  and  finally  to  put  down  in  a  book 
what  he  had  found  out.  At  least,  that  was  what  the 
older  children  did  with  great  pleasure  ;  and  so  I  should 
advise  each  of  you  to  have  a  book  quite  separate  from 
your  drawing,  and  to  write  down  in  it  all  the  discoveries 
you  make  about  the  objects  whose  pictures  you  after- 
wards draw.  Another  thing  that  went  into  this  book  I 
must  tell  you  before  going  on  :  the  children  asked  each 
other  questions,  and  the  answers  to  those  questions  were 
brought  back  the  next  time,  written  down,  and  then 
each  child  had  something  to  add  to  the  store  of  knowl- 
edge which  he  was  gathering  and  putting  into  the  leaves 
of  his  precious  little  book ;  such  questions  as  these,  for 
example  :  — 

1.  In  what  five  ways  are  plants  and  human  beings 
alike  ? 


304  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

2.  In  what  five  ways  are  they  unlike? 

3.  What  is  the  name  of  that  part  of  the  plant  which 
gets  food  and  drink  from  the  ground? 

4.  Are  these  parts  of  the  same  size  and  shape  in  all 
plants  ? 

5.  What  is  the  name  of  the  other  part  of  the  plant 
which  grows  out  from  the  seed,  and  which  likes  to  grow 
above  ground? 

6.  Does  this  part  that  grows  above  ground  have  the 
same  way  of  growing  in  all  plants? 

These  are  some  of  the  questions  only,  and  I  give  them 
to  you  just  as  hints  of  how  to  go  on,  and  I  will  close  this 
talk  with  you  by  giving  you  a  few  more  hints. 

Find  out  all  that  you  can  about  each  of  the  fruits 
whose  picture  you  have  on  your  cards,  or  which  you 
draw. 

For  instance,  state  which  fruits  have  blossoms  before 
the  leaves  come  out,  and  which  ones  get  the  leaves  before 
the  blossoms. 

Tell  all  you  can  about  the  kinds  of  blossoms  and 
leaves,  seeds  and  bark,  of  the  different  fruit  trees. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  branches  of  such  a  study 
is  the  collection  of  pieces  of  the  wood  of  the  several  fruit 
trees.  Some  of  the  children  had  beautiful  collections, 
and  were  fortunate  enough  to  find  some  one  to  polish 
the  bits  of  wood,  so  that  the  color  and  grain  of  the 
orange,  the  cherry,  the  chestnut,  and  so  on,  were  brought 
out  in  all  their  variety  and  beauty. 


fiOW   BOTANY   IS   PLAITED.  305 

Find  out  about  the  snug,  tiny  brown  blankets  in  which 
Mamma  Nature  keeps  her  baby  leaf-buds  and  baby 
flower-buds  rolled  up  warm  all  winter,  and  try  to  see 
with  your  own  eyes  some  of  these  buds  waking  up  and 
shaking  off  the  blankets  in  the  early  spring. 

State  how  long  a  time  passes  between  the  blossoming 
and  the  ripening  of  any  two  fruits  you  choose  to  com- 
pare,—  say  the  cherry  and  the  apple.  Tell  the  name  of 
the  fruit  you  have  noticed  ripening  first  in  the  season, 
and  also  of  that  which  ripened  latest  of  all,  and  tell  the 
day  and  the  month  when  you  observed  it. 

Tell  how  many  different  colors  you  have  seen  in 
fruits. 

And  now,  if  I  thought  this  were  to  be  the  last  word 
I  should  write  for  you,  — and  I  hope  it  will  not  be  by 
many,  many  more, — I  should  say,  be  eager  to  get  ac- 
quainted with  nature ;  love  the  grass,  and  the  wheat,  and 
the  flowers,  and  the  trees.  Go  out  into  the  fields  and 
woods  with  your  brothers  and  sisters  and  playmates, 
whenever  you  can,  not  to  fish,  or  to  shoot,  or  to  rob 
birds'  nests,  or  to  bring  terror  and  pain  to  any  living 
creature,  but  to  learn  the  looks  and  the  ways  of  growing 
things,  and  to  help  each  other  to  see  and  to  do  things 
that  one  alone  might  not  be  able  to  do  ;  and  if  you  follow 
after  these  things  that  I  have  shown  you,  I  am  very  sure 
you  will  be  happy. 

rUJTIVBltSITY] 

■%5iwriS> 


306  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

XII.  A  PROGRAMME  AND  THE  METHOD  OF  DEVEL- 
OPMENT USED  AT  E.  MARWEDEL'S  KINDER- 
GARTEN   AND    SCHOOL. 

The  demand  to  impress  our  children  very  early  with 
the  beauty  and  the  laws  laid  open  in  Natural  Science 
rests  not  exclusively  on  the  gaining  of  practical  knowl- 
edge, hut  rather  on  the  moral  and  mental  efforts  it  ex- 
ercises. Concentration  of  thought,  comparing  causes  and 
effect  as  a  natural  outgrowth  of  disciplined  powers,  de- 
velop strength  of  character  and  self-limitation  necessary 
for  man  to  consider  himself  a  responsible  part  to  the 
whole,  respecting  the  created  in  the  Creator,  which, 
from  searching  the  truths  centers  in  the  thinking  and 
living  in  truth.  On  this  earliest  conception  of  the 
truth  and  beauty  of  nature,  and  the  needed  truth  of 
man  to  nature,  Fried.  Froebel,  supplemented  by  W. 
Preyer,  bases  his  necessary  reform  of  early  education. 
He  holds  that  on  account  of  its  simple  form,  presenting 
a  unit,  its  attractiveness,  and  its  fundamental  connec- 
tion with  all  forms,  the  ball  relates  itself  typically  with 
all  forms  in  nature. 

Therefore,  presenting  in  its  great  simplicity  the  great- 
est manifoldness,  Froebel  selected  the  ball,  to  serve  as 
the  basis  for  an  extensive  series  of  visible  impressions 
by  self-experience. 

On  this  ground,  Emma  Marwedel,  from  San  Francisco, 
Cal.,  has  based  her  so-called  Circular  Drawing  System 
(exhibited  at  Madison,  Wis.,  1884). 


f 

PROGRAMME   AND   METHOD   OP  DEVELOPMENT.        307 

Her  aim  was,  and  is,  to  illustrate  by  actual  work  of 
her  pupils  a  methodically  arranged  curriculum  of  experi- 
mental and  analytical  observations  on  objects  pertaining 
to  nature.  Embracing  a  four  years'  logically  connected 
course,  the  child  of  the  kindergarten  steps  in  the  so-called 
flower-room,  or  the  first  group  of  impressions  abstracted 
from  the  simple,  therefore,  most  comprehensible  form,  — 
the  ball,  the  undivided  whole,  as  the  typical  form  of 
all  forms. 

The  child's  perception  is  fostered  by  surrounding  pic- 
tures, gained  from  the  care  and  observation  of  plant  life 
in  its  own  garden,  by  the  ball  in  general  and  a  rubber 
ball  in  special,  — the  latter  prepared  on  purpose. 

This  perception  is  directed  to  conceive  shape,  color, 
position,  direction,  size,  and  number,  by  the  so-called 
Circular  Sewing,  invented  by  Emma  Marwedel,  leading 
from  the  simple  ball-like  ring  or  flat  circle  to  the  fruit, 
vegetables,  leaves,  flowers,  and  roots ;  also  by  a  variety 
of  plays,  stories,  and  manipulations  with  and  observa- 
tions on  "increasing  and  decreasing,"  similarities  and 
dissimilarities,  to  an  individual  conception  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  circular  form  presented  in  all  rounded  objects 
of  nature. 

Furthermore,  by  means  of  manual  labor,  skill  and  eye- 
measure,  the  child  learns  to  use  and  to  dissect  the  circle 
as  its  standard  of  comparative  measurement  for  repro- 
ducing fruit,  vegetables,  and  flowers,  according  to  free 
individual   conceptions,  finally  directed   to   analysis  and 


308  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

classification.  For  this  purpose,  sand,  the  slate,  paper, 
clay,  wood  carving,  pasteboard  making,  paper  cutting, 
and  drawing  are  used. 

No  true  kindergartener  denies  the  possibility  of  bring- 
ing the  process  of  growth  —  one  of  the  greatest  phe- 
nomena of  life,  in  its  gradual  development  or  and  its 
philosophical  connection  with  all  things  — into  the  reach 
of  the  experience  of  even  the  smallest  child.  Does  not 
the  growth  of  a  simple  daisy,  planted  and  watched  by 
tiny  little  hands  and  eyes  in  its  own  garden,  tell  the  little 
three  or  four  year  old  one,  in  the  most  beautiful  unspoken 
language,  of  its  own  flower-like  existence,  and  of  that 
of  its  little  kitty,  which  was  so  small  first  that  it  could 
have  a  perfect  little  cradle  when  she  put  her  two  hands 
together?  Must  dear  Alice  not  bring  a  drink  as  well 
to  her  flowers  as  to  the  kitty ;  and  has  she  not  seen 
herself  that  the  beautiful  blue  morning-glory  went  to 
sleep  like  little  kitty  at  night?  And  how  much  kitty 
enjoys  the  sunshine  ;  and  Rosie  and  Marion  were  told  by 
their  mammas,  that  the  flowers  wanted  ever  so  much 
sunshine.  To  which  Giles  replied,  "  Minnie's  kitty  was 
not  the  only  one  that  lived  like  a  flower ;  he  wanted  a 
drink  very  often,  and  he  slept  well,  too,  and  when  on 
the  sea-shore  he  was  lying  all  day  in  the  sun."  But  then 
Irving  said,  "But  he  could  not  swim  like  a  fish,  and 
he  could  not  stand  with  his  feet  in  the  ground  like  a 
flower."  But  Giles  said,  "When  he  was  big  he  could 
swim  like  a  fish,  and  he  would  soon   be  shaved.     And 


PROGRAMME    AND   METHOD   OF   DEVELOPMENT.        309 

the  other  day,  when  they  played  in  the  sand,  they  dug 
a  hole,  and  he  was  standing  in  it  and  he  did  not  fall 
over." 

But  Lawrence  said,  no  one  could  grow  as  big  as  a 
pumpkin  ;  to  which  Willie  replied,  he  preferred  a  carrot 
after  all ;  he  would  take  it  out  of  his  own  garden,  and 
first  draw  it,  then  eat  it,  and  that  made  two  carrots. 

With  this  experimental  philosophy  of  babyhood,  the 
child  grows  unconsciously  into  the  larger  and  more  com- 
plicated aggregation  of  animal  life  and  general  qualities 
of  objects.  As  the  flower  has  color  and  shape,  has  a 
surface,  some  call  it  skin,  takes  space,  or  needs  place 
to  stand  on,  has  weight,  especially  when  it  is  a  big  sun- 
flower in  which  one  can  see  ever  so  many  pieces  when  it 
is  cut  (cohesion),  and  which  has,  after  all,  to  lie  down 
somewhere,  because  it  cannot  fly  around  forever  (gravita- 
tion) ;  so  the  animals  are  in  many  things  like  the  flowers, 
and  other  things  besides  the  flowers  and  animals.  Not 
a  bit  of  difference,  only  animals  can  move  about ;  to 
which  Lester  says,  they  cannot  always ;  some  animals 
are  fastened  to  the  rock.  Sap  becomes  a  synonym  for 
blood,  veins  for  veins,  midribs  for  backbones,  flesh  for 
fibers.  Hairs  grow  on  some  plants,  on  the  skin  of  ani- 
mals and  man,  and  even  they  burn.  Some  plants  have 
monkey  tails  to  fasten  themselves  on  trees ;  some  tails 
grow  in  the  ground.  Some  plants  have  thorns  like  a 
porcupine ;  some  flowers  climb  up  like  a  cat ;  others 
open  their  own  pitchers  to  take  in  water,  and  all  flowers 


310  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

wear  dresses  like  the  animals.  Some  wear  the  dress  of 
a  tiger,  and  they  are  called  tiger  lilies.  And  Irving, 
turning  on  his  heels,  his  arms  stretched,  calls  out  with 
great  emphasis,  "  And  everything  must  have  its  height, 
even  the  spider-web ;  this  I  know,  having  seen  some  in 
the  garden  on  my  flowers,  and  they  were  very  beautiful 
and  large."  "Of  course,"  said  Prescott,  "  and  there  is  an 
outside  and  inside  of  everything;  perfectly  smooth  on 
the  wooden  balls,  and  rough  on  worsted  balls;  we  all 
knew  that  long  time  ago,  when  we  played  'finding  dif- 
ferent surfaces.'  "  "But  please  let  me  tell  you  something 
else  about  balls,"  said  Meade  ;  "  we  had  some,  they  were 
of  wood,  some  of  brass,  of  marble,  iron,  glass,  pasteboard, 
and  sometimes  Aunt  Emma  put  an  apple  or  a  round  po- 
tato in,  and  do  you  remember  once  a  piece  of  dough  ?  for 
remember  we  were  blindfolded,  and  we  took  two  of  these 
things,  one  in  each  hand,  and  told  what  we  felt  most,  and 
that  we  called  the  heaviest,  that  means  most  weight. 
Other  days  we  played  'the  most,'  or  'what  was  the 
most/  and  that  we  called  size."  " May  I  say  something? " 
said  Marion.  "Do  you  know  that  piece  of  dough,  how 
much  fun  we  had  with  it?  how  we  made  it  long,  and 
wide,  and  afterwards  smaller  and  smaller,  and  how  Robert 
Whitney  guarded  it,  saying,  fI  make  it  tighter  and 
tighter,  till  it  will  be  the  tightest.'  Oscar  took  a  piece, 
and  he  first  made  a  square,  then  an  oblong,  and  then  in 
triangles,  and  it  was  always  the  same  in  weight,  neither 
less  nor  more ;  some  used  a  queer   word  for  it,  calling 


PROGRAMME    AND   METHOD   OF   DEVELOP3IENT.        311 

it  the  same  contents  ■  through  changed  in  form.  In 
recess,  Aunt  Emma  made  a  baby  of  it,  and  we  all  cut 
some  paper  dresses  for  it ;  that  was  great  fun." 

With  this  free  and  childish  natural  power  of  compara- 
tive conclusion,  and  individual  conception,  the  outgrowth 
of  every  normally  conditioned  and  normally  treated  child, 
what  remains  to  the  responsible  leader  of  childhood  than 
to  retain  its  self-activity,  helping  it  to  think  for  itself; 
developing  its  own  conception  of  life  as  it  did  when  for 
the  first  time  it  knelt  down  in  prayer,  before  the  open- 
ing of  the  first  daisy,  which  it  planted  with  its  own  hand  ? 

A  new  light  dawns  in  the  so-called  "New  Education." 
Man  begins  to  submit  to  the  use  of  the  activity  of  the 
natural  powers  of  the  senses  and  the  observing  faculties 
of  the  child,  by  merely  following  the  individual  bent  of 
its  nature.  Our  need  is  to  create  the  educational  atmos- 
phere, the  justly  regulated  conditions. 

The  earliest  introduction  into  the  beauty  and  science  of 
nature,  the  method  of  "knowing  by  doing"  and  the  free 
use  of  the  creative  forces,  have  been  recognized  as  the 
elements  of  such  justly  regulated  condition  of  the  child. 
The  following  programme  has  served  to  this  end,  a  de- 
scription of  which  has  been  kindly  demanded. 


312  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 


EMMA  MARWEDEL'S  KINDERGARTEN  AND  SCHOOL  FOR 
PHYSICAL,  MENTAL,  AND  MORAL  CULTURE,  SAN  FRAN- 
CISCO, CAL. 

EDUCATIONAL  DEVELOPING  IMPRESSIONS  THROUGH  THE  SENSES 
STRENGTHENED  BY  SELF-ACTIVITY  RETAINED  BY  FREE  REPRO- 
DUCTION OF  THE  CHILD. 


FIRST  DIVISION. 

Flower  Room  {Prang's  Flower  Chart).  — Introducing  the  curve. 

A.  Through  the  Ball,  in  which  the  child  observes  (sees). 

Color  and  Shape.  —  General  and  special  attributes  of  all  objects. 

Feels  (touches). 

Weight  and  Surface.  —  General  and  special  attributes  of  all  ob- 
jects. Experiences  (by  use). 

Motion,  Direction,  Position,  Size,  Space.  — General  and  special 
attributes  of  all  objects,  leading  to  the  conception  of  cohesion  and 
gravitation. 

B.  Through  the  Doll,  representing  the  child's  own  body  ;  introducing 

comparison  between  child's  life,  doll's  life,  and  home  life,  morally, 
intellectually,  and  socially,  the  making  of  a  doll-house,  paper  dolls, 
and  sand  table,  as  much  as  possible  in  common. 

C    Through  the  Body  and  Home,  introducing  observation  and  com- 
parison. 

Child  has  a  body.  So  has  the  doll. 

Child  has  a  home.  So  has  the  doll. 

Child  has  a  mother.  Doll  has  no  mother,  no  father,  no 

sister;   no  love  of  them,  no  du- 
ties to  them. 

Happy  little  beloved  child  in  a       Poor  doll  J ! 
happy  home. 


PROGRAMME    AND   METHOD   OF   DEVELOPMENT. 


313 


Through  Plant  Life  and  Care,  introducing,  through  self -obser- 
vation, comparison  and  conclusion,  and  moral  judgment. 


Plant  grows. 
Child  grows 


:'J 


Plant  needs  food. ") 
Child  needs  food,  v 
Plant  needs  care.  ) 

How  does  the  plant  grow? 

How  does  the  animal  grow  ? 
How  does  the  child  grow? 


What  does  the  doll  do? 


What  does  the  doll  need? 


than  food  and  care? 

What  do  animals  and  plants  need? 

Has  the  child  no  higher  aims  than 
to  grow? 


Similarity  of  the  growth  of  children  to  that  of  baby  seeds  in  plants. 
(See  "Aunt  Emma's  Botany,"  connected  with  "  Childhood's  Poetry  and 
Studies  in  the  Life  and  Form  of  Nature.") 

E.    Reproduction  of  the  Impressions  made. 


Through  forms  pressed  in  sand. 

Through  combinations  of  flower- 
like  forms  and  parts. 

Through  drawing  on  slates  or  pa- 
per, with  black  and  colored  pen- 
cils. 


Images  of  that  which  exists  and  is 
seen. 

Symmetrical  circular  forms,  either 
dictated  or  created. 

Reproduction  of  nature  and  free 
inventions  in  paper  cutting  and 
clay. 


All  impressions  have  to  be  enlivened,  so  that  they  shall  not  be  for- 
gotten, by  songs,  plays,  stories,  daily  gymnastics,  breathing  and  vocal- 
izing exercises,  and  gardening.    A  few  of  Froebel's  occupations. 


314 


CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 


SECOND  DIVISION. 

Using  the  same  underlying  principles  and  means  of  developing  as  in 
Division  I. 


Animal  Room  {Prang's  Charts). 

A.  Child's  Body; 

B.  Plant's  Body; 

C.  Animal's  Body; 

D.  Introduction  of  Third  and 
Fourth  Gift  of  Froebel. 

E.  Aunt  Emma's  Circular  Draw- 
ing-Book, No.  I. 

F.  Some  of  Froebel's  Occupa- 
tions, including  Square  Tab- 
lets. 


—  Introducing  cylindrical  forms. 

its  parts  and  functions. 

its  parts  and  functions. 

its  parts  and  functions. 

Leading  to  comparison,  conclusion, 
and  moral  judgment,  supplement- 
ed by  the  care  of  animals,  raising, 
analyzing,  and  drawing  of  plants, 
cutting  in  paper  and  modeling 
them. 


THIRD  DIVISION. 

MAN  IN  HIS  RELATION  TO  THE  USE  OF  PLANT  AND   ANIMAL   LD7E. 

Room  filled  with  Braun  Sons'  pictures,  which  offer,  by  attractive 
sceneries,  a  combined  instruction  in  botany,  geography,  and  zoology. 

A.    Plant  Life,    "^  Both  as  made  useful  to  man,  lead- 


Animal  Life. 
Man. 


D.  Home  Geography.  —  Measure- 
ment of  school-garden  and  city 
blocks,  excursions  to  buildings, 
factories,  and  museum. 

E.  Botany.  —  Practiced  in  school- 
gardens  by  drawing,  analyzing, 
and  modeling;  also  by  paper 
cutting. 


ing  to  the  manufacturing  powers 
of  man  and  his  wisdom  as  con- 
sumer of«raw  products,  including 
man's  moral  and  religious  obli- 
gation, based  on  the  unity  of 
creation  and  the  Creator. 
Sand  table,  clay,  microscopes, 
cabinet,  gymnastics. 


Aunt  Emma's  Botany  and  Cir- 
cular Drawing." 


PROGRAMME    AND   METHOD    OF   DEVELOPMENT. 


315 


F  Beginning  of  Writing  and 
Reading.  —  At  once  used  to  ex- 
press original  ideas,  based  on  self- 
help.     Arithmetic  by  objects. 

G.     Use  of  the  fifth  gift  of  Froebel, 
and  some  of  his  occupations. 


Reading  and  speaking  of  the  Eng- 
lish language. 


FOURTH  DIVISION. 

Room  filled  with  Brockhaus  Bilder  Atlas,  Braun's  Ancient  Historical 
Pictures ;  maps,  charts  of  physic,  library  and  cabinet. 


A  The  child  in  his  relation  to  him- 
self, to  others,  and  to  God,  his 
creator,  morally  and  intellectu- 
ally. 

8.  Child's  relation  to  its  physical 
and  moral,  constructive  and  de- 
structive powers. 


C.  Geography,  elements  of  physics 
and  physiology,  and  ancient  his- 
tory. 


D.     Geometry  and  arithmetic. 

_ 


By  work  in  common,  good  read- 
ing and  stories.  By  the  older 
ones  taking  care  of  the  younger 
ones,  and  by  instilling  good 
habits,  based  on  self-control. 

By  reading  biographies  and  ele- 
vating poetry.  By  making  a 
statement  of  the  daily  conduct 
in  a  book  kept  for  that  pur- 
pose. General  elevation  of 
mind  and  aims,  awakening  re- 
ligious feelings  by  hymns  and 
words. 

By  map  making  in  relief  (for  in- 
stance, in  putty).  Map  draw- 
ing. Physical  instruments  and 
Braun's  Historical  Pictures ; 
also  Brockhaus  Bilder  Atlas. 

Froebel's  seventh  gift  and  Rob- 
inson's Second  Part  of  Arith- 
metic. 

*'  Aunt  Emma's  Botany  and  Cir- 
cular Drawing."  The  raising 
of  plants  and  modeling  them. 


316 


CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 


F.     Reading  and  writing. 


G.     Bodily  exercises. 
H.     English  language. 


Directed  from  the  beginning  to 
practical  use,  in  reading  geog- 
raphy, botany,  and  poetry ;  also 
in  writing  essays. 

Back.     Bar.     Swing. 

Practiced  by  speaking,  writing, 
reading,  and  dictation. 


It  is  the  author's  aim  to  speak  in  her  next  volume  of 
the  kindergarten,  in  consideration  of  "what  it  is  and 
what  it  will  be " ;  also  of  school-gardens  and  education 
through  work,  in  the  United  States  and  Europe. 


PAET    II. 


%\tz  gonl  at  ffae  OWL 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  EECOED  OF  OBSEEVATIONS 


W.  PEEYER  ON  HIS  OWN  CHILD,  FROM  BIRTH  TO  THE  AGE 
OF  THEEE  YEARS. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE. 


The  latest,  and  so  far  the  most  exhaustive,  scientific 
investigations  of  infantile  evolution  have  been  made  by 
Prof.  W.  Preyer,  of  the  chair  of  Physiology  and  Psy- 
chology in  the  University  at  Jena.  Three  times  every 
day  (beginning  five  minutes  after  the  child  was  born) ,  for 
three  consecutive  years,  Preyer  made  careful  observa- 
tions on  his  own  son ;  and  the  remarkable  work,  entitled 
"The  Soul  of  the  Child,"  contains  the  results  of  these 
observations.  Pending  such  a  translation  of  this  invalu- 
able book  as  will  place  the  English  reader  in  full  posses- 
sion of  it,  the  following  extracts  are  made,  with  a  view 
to  giving  mothers  and  educators  an  insight  into  the 
natural  unfolding  of  the  physical  and  mental  organization 
of  the  infant  human  being.  Only  such  extracts  are  here 
given  as  relate  to  and  illustrate  Part  I.  of  this  volume, 
"Conscious  Motherhood." 

It  is  earnestly  believed  that  no  true  mother,  once 
awakened  to  the  possibilities  of  aiding  in  the  development 
of  her  child  which  those  studies  of  Preyer  will  suggest, 
can  be  content  to  remain  a  passive  spectator  of  the  suc- 
cessive acts  of  earliest  development.  If  in  every  family, 
experiments  and  observations  similar  to  those  instituted 


320  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

by  Preyer  should  concentrate  the  interest  and  efforts  of 
the  thinking  members  of  the  family  upon  the  growing 
infant,  the  value  of  such  a  course,  to  the  individual,  to 
the  family,  and  to  science,  would  be  well-nigh  immeasur- 
able. The  most  delightful  occupation  would  fill  the 
many  worse  than  idle  hours, — hours  now  spent  in  aim- 
less talk  or  corroding  gossip ;  and  the  baby,  instead  of 
being  alternately  a  toy  and  a  care,  would  become  the 
center  of  a  thrilling  drama. 

In  translating  the  following  extracts,  attention  has  been 
given  chiefly  to  Preyer's  experiments  and  conclusions 
upon  the  educational  value  of  an  early  and  careful  di- 
rection of  the  senses  and  the  emotions. 


PEEFACE   OF  PREYEE. 


Several  years  ago,  in  placing  before  myself  the  task 
of  investigating  the  physiology  of  the  child,  both  before 
its  birth  and  in  the  time  immediately  succeeding  the  same 
(in  order  to  arrive  at  a  conclusion  concerning  the  origin 
of  the  individual  vital  processes),  I  very  soon  realized 
that  a  division  of  the  work  would  favor  its  progress. 
Since  fetal  embryonic  life  is  so  essentially  different  from 
life  after  the  child  has  left  the  uterus,  a  separate  presenta- 
tion of  the  results  of  the  investigator's  labors  will  be  an 
unmistakable  benefit  to  the  reader. 

I  have,  therefore,  treated  life  before  birth  as  a  separate 
subject,  under  the  title  "Physiology  of  the  Embryo." 
Again,  the  phenomena  of  the  life  of  a  human  being,  in 
the  first  period  of  its  independent  existence  in  the  world, 
are  so  complex  and  varied,  that  here,  too,  a  division  of 
the  subject  proved  desirable.  I  separated  the  physical 
development  of  the  new-born  and  very  young  child  from 
its  mental  unfolding,  and  have  endeavored  to  describe  the 
latter  in  the  present  volume.  I  hope,  at  least,  that  by 
means  of  my  own  observations  for  several  years,  I  have 
contributed  actual  material  for  a  future  description  of 
human  unfoldment. 


322  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

A  forerunner  of  the  work,  in  the  shape  of  a  lecture  on 
Psychogenesis,  delivered  by  me  in  1880,  in  Berlin,  be- 
fore the  Scientific  Association,  was  published  in  the  same 
year  as  my  book,  "Facts  and  Problems  of  Natural  Sci- 
ence." This  sketch  stimulated  many  others  to  new  obser- 
vations ;  and  yet,  regularly  kept  journals  of  the  mental 
development  of  individual  children  are  unknown  to  me, 
great  as  is  the  number  of  occasional  observations  on  many 
children.  And  it  is  exactly  the  first  and  second  years 
of  life  that  offer  the  greatest  difficulty  in  attempting  a 
chronological  investigation  of  mental  growth,  on  account 
of  the  nursery  being  the  only  place  where  a  daily  regis- 
tration of  such  experiences  can  be  made.  I  have,  never- 
theless, kept  a  diary  from  the  birth  of  my  son  until  the 
end  of  his  third  year.  As  I,  with  only  two  trifling 
interruptions,  occupied  myself  with  the  child  nearly 
every  day  at  least  three  times,  — morning,  mid-day,  and 
evening,  —  protecting  it  as  much  as  possible  from  the 
customary  "  training,"  I  found  nearly  every  day  some 
psychogenetic  fact  to  record.  The  essential  contents 
of  this  diary  are   to  be  found  in   the   following   pages. 

It  is  true,  one  child  develops  quickly,  another  slowly. 
The  greatest  differences  of  individuality  occur  in  the  chil- 
dren of  the  same  parents,  even  ;  but  these  differences  are 
related  much  more  to  period  and  degrees  than  to  the 
order  of  succession  of  the  individual  phenomena  of  devel- 
opment.    This  order  is  the  same  in  all. 

Desirable  as  it  is,  however,  to  collect  statistics  of  the 


PREFACE    OF   PREYER.  323 

mental  unfolding  of  many  nurslings,  —  of  their  sense 
activity,  their  movements,  and  especially  their  learning 
to  speak, — -it  seemed  still  just  as  desirable  to  record 
exact  daily  observations  upon  one  healthy  child,  which 
should  be  neither  remarkably  forward  nor  remarkably 
backward  in  development,  and  which  should,  besides, 
be  without  brothers  and  sisters. 

However,  I  have  also  tried  as  much  as  possible  to  con- 
sider the  observations  made  by  others  upon  other  normal 
children  in  the  first  years  of  life;  and  have  also,  when- 
ever opportunity  offered,  myself  made  many  comparisons 
of  children.  But  a  description  of  the  gradual  appear- 
ance of  brain  activity  in  a  child,  and  the  most  careful 
record  of  the  perfecting  of  his  intellectual  powers,  would, 
after  all,  be  only  a  beginning.  The  spiritual  develop- 
ment must,  just  as  in  the  development  of  form,  be  dated 
far  back  of  the  origin  of  the  individual  existence. 

When  we  perceive  that  a  new-born  child  brings  with 
him  into  the  world  a  number  of  organs,  which,  up  to 
this  time,  have  been  completely  unused,  and  whose  func- 
tions begin  later  on,  as,  for  example,  the  lungs,  useless 
before  birth,  the  question  arises,  "To  what  cause  do 
these  organs  owe  their  existence?"  And  though  the 
response  necessarily  is,  "To  inheritance,"  it  is  true  this 
answer  explains  nothing ;  but  vague  as  the  idea  may  be, 
much  is,  nevertheless,  gained  by  recognizing  the  fact  that 
certain  functions  are  inherited,  others  not.  Only  a 
portion   are  acquired   by  experience.     The   question  of 


324  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

the  inheritance  or  the  acquisition  of  a  function  of  the 
brain,  upon  which  everything  depends, — as  far  as  the 
spiritual  development  of  the  child  is  concerned,  —  must 
in  every  single  case  receive  an  answer ;  otherwise  we  will 
be  lost  in  the  labyrinth  of  appearances  and  opinions. 

First  of  all,,  there  must  be  a  clear  conception  that 
the  fundamental,  intellectual  functions,  which  make  their 
appearance  subsequent  to  birth,  have  not  originated 
subsequent  to  birth.  If,  in  a  word,  they  were  abso- 
lutely non-existent  before  birth,  then  it  would  be  per- 
fectly inexplicable  whence  and  when  they  come.  The 
contents  of  a  fertilized  hen's  egg  certainly  feel  nothing 
when  they  are  frozen  as  hard  as  a  rock ;  but  after  the  egg 
has  been  thawed  out,  and  incubated  for  three  weeks, 
these  very  same  contents,  now  transformed  into  a  living 
chicken,  feel.  If  the  capacity  to  feel,  as  soon  as  certain 
external  conditions  are  realized,  did  not  inhere  in  the 
egg,  then  the  capacity  must,  during  incubation,  have 
arisen  from  matter  incapable  of  feeling ;  that  is  to  say, 
it  would,  in  this  view  of  the  case,  be  necessary  that 
the  material  atoms  should  not  only  arrange  themselves 
differently,  attain  by  decomposition  and  recomposition 
new  chemical  qualities,  as  is  really  the  case,  not  only, 
as  also  really  happens,  be  able  to  alter  their  partly 
dependent,  partly  independent  physical  peculiarities, 
such  as  electricity,  accretion,  etc.,  but  also  that  they 
shall  acquire  totally  new  powers,  which  have  hitherto 
been  neither  physically  nor  chemically  hinted  at.      For 


PREFACE    OF   PREYER.  325 

neither  chemistry  nor  physics  can.  add  to  the  material  of 
which  the  egg  is  composed  any  other  than  chemical  and 
physical  qualities  but  in  the  course  of  a  normal  incu- 
bation, with  suitable  conditions  and  processes  such  as 
warmth,  atmospheric  air  evaporations,  and  the  giving 
off  or  expiration  of  carbonic-acid  gas,  and  these  quali- 
ties are  like  those  of  the  being  which  produced  the  egg. 
We  must,  therefore,  admit  that  from  its  parents  some- 
thing passes  into  the  egg,  which,  besides  the  known  or 
unknowable  chemical  and  physical  qualities,  possessed 
other  latent,  neither  chemically  nor  physically  recogniz- 
able qualities ;  in  short,  psychical,  and  hence  physio- 
logical, attributes ;  possessed  potentially,  that  is  to  say, 
and  needing  warmth,  air,  etc.,  for  their  actual  unfold- 
ing. The  same  conditions  are  requisite  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  tissues  and  organs  of  the  embryo,  since 
these  tissues  and  organs  are  not  contained  as  such  in 
the  albumen,  sugar,  fat,  water,  and  salts  of  the  egg, 
and  do  not,  therefore,  belong  to  the  purely  chemical 
and  physical  dispositions,  but  resemble  in  all  cases  the 
beings  who  were  its  ancestors. 

There  inhere,  therefore,  in  some  parts  of  the  egg 
contents,  undoubtedly,  certain  potential  qualities;  powers 
of  sensation,  at  least.  And  these  parts  must  at  the 
same  time  be  those  out  of  which  arise  the  germs,  the 
protoplasms  of  the  embryo.  There  are,  admittedly, 
cell  formations  with  independent  movements,  to  which 
we  dare  not  deny  certain  powers  of  differentiation,  any 


326  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

more  than  we  can  deny  it  to  the  lowest  plant  animal  or 
zoophyte.  They  grow  and  move  themselves  by  the 
pushing  out  and  drawing  in  of  pseudo  feet;  they  evi- 
dently take  up  nutriment  as  does  the  zoophyte,  require 
oxygen,  multiply  themselves  by  fission,  and  behave 
in  general  like  the  amoebae,  or  other  simple  living 
forms.  The  opinion,  however,  that  these  cell  forms 
possess  certain  psychical  dispositions,  however  vague, — 
certain,  even  if  dim,  powers  of  sensation,  —  is  incon- 
trovertible. 

Everything  favors  the  idea  of  the  transmitted  con- 
tinuity of  the  power  of  sensation.  It  is  not  produced 
each  time  anew  in  the  human  being  out  of  matter  in 
itself  incapable  of  sensation,  but  it  becomes  differen- 
tiated in  the  egg  out  of  those  parts  in  which  it  inheres 
as  a  hereditary  quality,  and  it  is  brought  later  to  active 
participation  by  stimulation  from  without,  —  a  stimula- 
tion from  which  the  embryo  is  shielded,  and  hence  in 
the  embryo  sensation  is  scarcely  noticeable,  while  in 
the  new-born  child  it  is  very  marked.  The  soul  or 
psj'che  of  the  new-born  child  does  not  therefore  resem- 
ble a  tabula  rasa,  on  which  the  senses  must  write  im- 
pressions, so  that  out  of  these  impressions,  in  the 
thousand-fold  changes  of  our  lives,  our  total  mentality 
shall  be  produced ;  rather,  the  white  page  is  already 
before  birth  written  over  with  illegible,  unintelligible, 
invisible  characters,  the  vestiges  of  the  inscriptions  of 
unnumbered  sense  impressions  of  long-past  generations. 


PREFACE   OF  PREYER.  327 

So  dim  and  blurred  are  these  characters,  that  one 
would  indeed  be  tempted  to  regard  the  page  as  un- 
written, were  he  not  observant  of  the  changes  that 
take  place  upon  it  in  the  verv  first  years  of  life.  For 
the  more  attentively  we  look,  the  more  easily  legible 
becomes  the  writing  —  at  first  unintelligible  —  which  the 
child  brought  with  it  into  the  world.  One  thus  real- 
izes what  a  legacy  each  individual  has  inherited  from 
his  ancestors,  how  much  there  is  that  cannot  have 
been  the  result  of  his  own  sense  impressions,  and  how 
false  is  the  prevalent  opinion  that  man  learns  how  to 
feel,  and  to  will,  and  to  think,  by  means  of  his  senses, 
alone.  Heredity  is  quite  as  important  a  factor  in 
psychogenesis  as  is  individual  activity.  No  human 
being  is  here  a  parvenu,  who  has  developed  his  soul 
by  his  own  personal  experiences ;  but  by  means  of 
his  experience  he  must  revitalize  and  cultivate  his 
inherited  gifts,  —  the  remains  of  the  experiences  and 
activities  of  his  forefathers.  It  is  difficult  to  discern 
and  to  decipher  the  mystic  writing  on  the  soul  of  the 
child,  and  just  this  constitutes  the  principal  task  of 
this  work. 

Preyer. 


CONTENTS  OF  PART  H. 


PAGE 

TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE 319 

PREFACE   OF   PREYER 321 

INTRODUCTION 331 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  Sense  of  Sight 334 

CHAPTER  II. 
The  Sense  of  Hearing 360 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  Sense  of  Touch 370 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Sense  of  Taste 377 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Sense  of  Smell 382 

CHAPTER   VI. 

The  Earliest    Perception    of    Comfort    and    Discomfort, 

and  the  Development  of  Emotions  ...        .        .        .      387 

CHAPTER  VII. 
General  Conclusions 407 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Movements  of  the  Child  as  Expressions  of  its  "Will  .        .      415 

(329) 


330  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

CHAPTER  IX.  pack 

Impulsive  Motions 418 

CHAPTER  X. 
Reflex  Movements 420 

CHAPTER  XL 
Instinctive  Movements 430 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Imitative  Movements 463 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
Expressive  Movements 472 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Intended  Movements 490 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Summary  of  the  General  Results 496 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Cultivation  of  the  Child's  Intellect  independent  of 

Language 501 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
History  of  the  Development  of  Speech  in  the  Child        .      512 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

First  Sounds  and  Attempts  at  Speech  of  a  Child,  observed 

daily  during  the  first  three  years  of  his  llfe  .        .      528 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Development  of  the  Ego  Sentiment 541 

Final  Results 547 


INTRODUCTION. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  SENSES. 

Preyer  asserts  and  demonstrates  that  all  psychogenetic 
power  resides  in  the  activity  of  the  senses.  Without  this 
activity  there  is  no  mental  development. 

Psychogenesis,  then,  proceeds  through  the  following 
four  stages  of  sense  activity :  First,  a  nervous  irritation 
develops  sensation;  this  many  times  repeated  produces 
the  ability  to  recognize  time  and  space,  and  hence  per- 
ception  of  cause  and  effect,  and  finally  the  conception  of 
ideas,  ending  in  logical  conclusion  or  reason. 

It  is  of  essential  importance  to  the  right  understanding 
of  the  mental  and  spiritual  development  of  the  adult  — 
a  being  of  independent  action  and  thought  —  to  know  as 
much  as  possible  of  the  gradually  unfolding  sense  activity 
of  the  new-born,  irresponsible  child,  not  yet  able  to  act 
or  to  think. 

Preyer  says  that  a  child  which  is  born  in  full  posses- 
sion of  its  senses  will  give  evidence  of  that  fact  by  act- 
ing, even  on  the  very  first  day  of  its  life,  differently 
from  children  who  are  in  some  respects  lacking.  He 
accounts  for  this  by  supposing  traces  at  the  nerve  centers 
remaining  there  as  the  accumulations  of  the  thousand- 


332  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD, 

times  repeated  acts  of  ancestors,  thus  forming  a  he- 
reditary education  quickly  responsive  to  normal  sense 
impressions. 

Primary  nerve  motions  are  the  starting-point  of  all 
mental  activity ;  and  this  earliest  mentality  begins 
probably  with  a  discrimination  of  the  impressions  of 
time  and  space,  as  evoked  by  the  act  of  sucking. 

The  perception  of  succession  in  time  is,  however, 
very  manifestly  much  sooner  developed  than  the  idea 
of  space,  or  of  a  causal  connection  between  sensations 
and  objects.  For  instance,  the  child's  very  first  expe- 
rience teaches  it  that  a  certain  contact  of  the  lips  is 
followed  by  the  pleasant  sensation  of  something  warm 
and  sweet  in  the  mouth,  and  thus  it  constantly  desires 
this  contact,  evidently  recollecting  a  chronological  order 
of  sensations,  but  as  evidently  failing  for  a  long  time  to 
recognize  a  logical  connection.  This  is  proved  by  the 
fact  that  it  often,  at  first,  notwithstanding  the  very  dis- 
tinct difference  between  that  portion  of  the  breast  from 
which  the  milk  flows,  and  any  other  portion,  will  catch 
the  skin  anywhere  and  suck  vigorously  upon  it ;  and 
even  for  months  will,  when  hungry,  persist  in  a  fruit- 
less sucking  of  its  own  fingers,  or  of  any  other  soft 
object.  This  is  the  more  singular,  because  very  early 
the  child  learns  to  recognize  by  sight  the  mother's 
breast  as  the  source  of  its  ever-recurring  satisfaction 
and  delight. 

The   starting-point   for   educators    is    the    recognition 


INTRODUCTION.  333 

of  predisposition,  or,  .with  another  word,  disposition; 
and  this  is  clearly  a  matter  of  inheritance.  As  before 
indicated,  there  are  on  every  cell  of  every  tissue  and 
organ  of  the  new-born  creature,  countless  memories,  the 
result  of  the  experiences  of  unnumbered  generations  that 
have  preceded  him.  Dim  and  illegible  as  are  these 
tracings  upon  the  soul  of  the  child,  they  are  there. 
They  are  neither  created  nor  destroyed  by  the  individual 
activity,  but  still  every  experience  of  the  individual  life 
tends  to  modify  them,  and  here,  we  repeat,  the  true 
value  of  a  careful  study  of  the  young  human  being  is 
made  clear. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  SENSE   OF  SIGHT. 

This  being  the  first  and  most  powerful  of  the  special 
senses  in  promoting  intellectual  development,  Preyer 
made  many  observations  on  its  evolution,  and  has  fol- 
lowed the  gradual  improvement  of  the  function  in  the 
ensuing  directions,  viz.,  sensitiveness  to  light,  distin- 
guishing colors,  movements  of  the  lids,  movements  of  the 
eyes,  direction  of  the  glance,  seeing  near  and  far,  and 
conception  of  the  thing  seen. 

These  indications,  together  with  his  description  of 
the  manner  in  which  he  conducted  the  experiments,  will 
be  in  the  highest  degree  helpful  to  mothers  in  pursuing 
similar  observations. 

Five  minutes  after  the  birth  of  Preyer's  child,  he  held 
it  toward  the  window  in  the  morning  twilight,  and  re- 
marked that  it  alternately  opened  and  closed  its  eyes  par- 
tially at  first,  and  then  shortly  unclosed  them  fully,  at 
the  same  time  frowning  perceptibly.  But  long  before  the 
end  of  the  first  day  a  marked  change  of  facial  expression 
took  place  when  the  father's  hand  intervened  between  the 
child's  eyes  and  the  light  from  the  window.     Evidently 


COLOR    SENSE.  \  335 

the  nerves  of  sight  already  responded  pleasurably  to  the 
influence  of  a  soft  light. 

On  the  second  day  he  snut  his  eyes  quickly  when  a 
lighted  candle  was  held  near  them,  and  on  the  ninth  day 
turned  his  head  away  energetically  when  a  candle  flame 
greeted  his  eyes  on  suddenly  awaking.  As,  however,  on 
the  very  next  day  his  eyes  remained  wide  open  with  the 
lighted  candle  shining  into  them  at  a  distance  of  one  yard, 
it  may  be  noted  that  light  displeased  only  by  sudden  con- 
trast with  darkness  (of  sleep  or  otherwise).  This  was 
further  proved  by  his  staring  fixedly  at  a  burning  candle 
on  the  eleventh  day,  and  also  at  a  bright  curtain  chain 
which  was  held  within  his  field  of  vision.  So  manifest 
was  his  pleasure  from  these  objects,  that  he  cried  when 
they  were  removed,  and  was  quieted  by  their  restora- 
tion. 

From  the  sixth  day  on,  he  voluntarily  turned  his  head 
towards  the  window.  From  the  second  month,  he  ex- 
pressed loudly  his  delight  at  the  sight  of  shining  objects, 
and  in  the  tenth  month  he  laughed  out  loudly  when  the 
lamps  were  lighted,  and  tried  to  seize  the  globes. 


COLOR  SENSE. 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  when  the  child  becomes  able  to 
distinguish  colors,  at  least  to  discriminate  between  red, 
yellow,  green,  and  blue.  At  first,  certainly,  he  feels 
only,  and  that  imperfectly,  the  difference  between  light 


336  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

and  dark.  It  is  not  until  three  or  four  days  after  birth, 
that  the  optic  tract,  till  then  gray,  becomes  endowed  with 
its  medullary  substance  and  permanent  color,  and  even 
after  this  the  power  to  separate  color  impressions  pro- 
ceeds but  slowly. 

Probably  the  first  object  which  attracted  the  attention 
of  Preyer's  child,  on  account  of  its  color,  was  a  rose- 
colored  curtain  hanging  a  foot  distant  from  his  face,  and 
shone  upon  by  the  sun.  This  was  before  the  end  of  the 
first  month,  and  excited  audible  and  unmistakable  signs 
of  pleasure,  as  did  also  that  same  evening  the  candle 
flame  at  a  distance  of  one  yard.  When  his  child  had 
reached  the  age  of  twenty-one  months,  Preyer  instituted 
a  systematic  series  of  color  tests  by  means  of  the  oval 
counters  prepared  by  Dr.  H.  Magnus,  of  Breslau. 

The  babe  understood  the  meaning  of  the  word  "  give," 
and  it  also  doubtless  observed  the  difference  of  the 
colors,  but  it  gave  at  this  time  absolutely  no  sign  of 
ability  to  pick  out  the  color  demanded.  This,  most 
likely,  was  not  in  the  least  the  result  of  incapacity 
of  the  eye  to  distinguish  the  differences  of  the  col- 
ors, but  the  mental  difficulty  of  adjusting  the  sounds 
of  the  words  "red,"  "green,"  to  the  sights  red, 
green. 

In  order  to  discover  certainly  how  this  power  to  differ- 
entiate colors  came  into  definite  existence,  Preyer  under- 
took, toward  the  end  of  the  second  year  of  his  child's 
life,  the  most  careful  experiments,  amounting  to  several 


COLOR-SENSE.  337 

hundreds,  daily  every  morning  for  weeks,  and  then, 
after  a  week's  interval,  daily  again. 

After  repeatedly  pronouncing  the  names  "red"  and 
"green,"  at  the  same  time  laying  before  the  child  the 
corresponding  colors,  the  connection  between  sight  and 
sound  was  gradually  established.  As  before  remarked, 
there  was  at  twenty-one  months  no  such  connection  in  the 
mind  of  the  child,  but  between  three  and  four  months 
after  this  time  (on  the  seven  hundred  and  fifty-eighth 
day  of  his  life,  to  be  quite  accurate),  the  boy,  to  the 
father's  surprise,  gave  eleven  correct  and  six  incorrect 
answers  to  the  questions,  "Where  is  red?"  "Where  is 
green  ?  "  And  five  days  later  he  returned  fifteen  correct 
answers,  and  only  one  incorrect.  Finally,  on  the  next 
day  to  this,  he  gave  ten  correct  and  no  incorrect  replies, 
thus  clearly  proving  that  he  had  learned  to  couple  to- 
gether properly  the  audible  and  the  visual  impressions, 
red  and  green.  Yellow  was  now  added,  and  each  of 
the  three  colors  was  correctly  named  once  by  the  little 
one  ;  but  he  then  showed  the  reluctance  which  often  ren- 
ders impossible  with  so  young  children  the  further  carry- 
ing forward  of  color  tests,  and  he  confused  the  colors 
repeatedly  in  his  replies. 

Blue  was  next  added,  and  proved  the  most  difficult  of 
the  four  for  the  child  to  distinguish  and  name.  Yellow, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  easiest  learned  and  best  retained. 
Green  was,  next  to  blue,  the  most  difficult ;  especially 
after   several  colors   were  placed  before  the  child.     At 


338  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

first,  when  only  green  and  red  were  present,  it  seemed 
easy  to  distinguish  green  as  being  "  not  red."  Yellow 
and  red  are  indeed  the  colors  first  recognized  by  all  young 
children,  and  this  doubtless  has  its  physiological  cause  in 
the  state  of  the  retina,  the  darker  colors,  green,  blue, 
violet,  etc.,  being  less  distinguishable  on  account  of  the 
greater  absorption  of  the  light. 

About  this  time,  Preyer  changed  his  method  of  in- 
quiry, and  instead  of  asking,  "Where  is  green?"  etc., 
he  took  the  colored  counters,  and  asked,  as  he  laid 
them  before  the  child,  "What  is  that?"  Correct  and 
incorrect  replies  were  received  in  the  following  propor- 
tions :  — 

Correct 
Incorrect     . 

This  was  when  the  child  was  two  years  and  nine 
months  old,  but  caprice  and  reluctance  came  in  often 
as  factors  at  this  age.  Sometimes  there  was  com- 
plete inattention,  and  sometimes,  on  the  other  hand, 
he  would  himself  bring  the  box,  and  demand  a  color 
lesson. 

Gray  was  added  to  the  number,  and  was  more  easily 
recognized  than  blue,  which  still  remained  the  hardest. 

The  grouping  of  tints  and  shades  of  the  same  color  was 
now  experimented  upon,  and  very  imperfectly  successful 
for  a  while.  Blue  was  confounded  with  purple,  and  also 
with  green.     All  pale  colors  were  confounded  with  gray, 


Red. 

Yellow. 

Green. 

Blue. 

Purple, 

10 

9 

9 

5 

11 

2 

0 

1 

7 

1 

COLOR    SENSE.  339 

and   all   dark   shades  with   black ;   but   black,    red,    and 
yellow  were  now  given  with  utmost  certainty. 

An  interval  of  two  months  supervened  at  this  time, 
while  Prof.  Preyer  and  his  family  were  traveling  or 
were  residing  at  Garda  Lake.  On  renewing  the  exami- 
nations after  that,  the  child's  confusion  of  the  lighter 
colors  was  great.  The  following  table  gives  the  propor- 
tion of  correct  knowledge  at  this  time :  — 

Orange.  Red.  Yellow.  Green.  Blue.  Purple.  Gray. Brown.  Pink.  Black. 
Correct      .  0       17        22        0  09  0  4         33 

Incorrect  .  2        0         0      18        13        i         5  3         40 

After  this,  the  child  took  out  the  colors  itself,  and 
handed  them  to  the  father,  naming   them  as  he  did  so. 

Yellow  and  red  in  all  tints  were  now  removed  from 
the  box,  and  the  child  immediately  showed  less  interest 
in  the  lesson,  and  insisted  that  his  father  should  name 
green.  Many  other  amusements  diverted  his  mind  from 
interest  in  colors  in  those  days,  and  he  did  not  succeed 
well  at  all  in  grouping  the  shades. 

About  this  time  he  also  invented  a  name.  On  receiving 
a  bouquet  of  yellow  roses,  the  yellow  was  immediately 
named,  but  the  leaves  he  insisted  on  calling  "garni." 
At  this  date,  too,  he  makes  the  remarkable  statement 
that  "he  does  not  know  green  and  blue,  but  a  grown-up 
man  knows  green  and  blue." 

When  not  quite  three  years  old  his  color  sense  had 
reached    the    development    indicated    by   the    following 


340  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

figures,    the   table    showing   the   total   results   of  exam- 
ination :  — 

Correct.  Incorrect. 

Yellow 232  8 

Brown 79  8 

Red 235  36 

Purple 139  24 

Black 39  7 

Pink 76  29 

Orange 47  23 

Gray 35  33 

Green 101  123      - 

Blue      .                 61  151 

1,044  442 

Yellow,  it  will  be  seen,  holds  overwhelmingly  the 
upper  hand,  and  blue  comes  last  of  all.  Yellow,  in  fact, 
was  discriminated  a  full  year  sooner  than  blue,  and  this 
is  an  observation  which  is  verified  with  most  children. 
One  boy  of  four  months  showed  his  delight  in  and  pref- 
erence for  bright  red,  and  all  children  prefer  the  warm 
to  the  cold  colors. 

It  remains  to  be  noted,  that  when  Preyer's  child 
was  three  years  old,  he  moved  about  in  semi-darkness 
with  astonishing  celerity  and  certainty ;  and  that,  to 
the  amazement  of  those  who  had  observed  his  many 
mistakes  in  the  earlier  color  lessons,  he  could,  in  the 
beginning  of  his  fourth  year,  distinguish  not  only  all 
the  colors,  but  even  the  finest  differences  in  tones  of 
color. 


MOVEMENTS   OF   THE    EYELIDS.  341 


MOVEMENTS  «OF   THE  EYELIDS. 

It  is  generally  found  that  new-born  children,  even 
when  awake,  keep  the  eyelids  closed,  or  if  open,  only 
partially  so,  or  asymmetrically,  as  one  eye  often  opens 
while  the  other  remains  shut.  Preyer's  child  opened 
both  eyes  wide  before  the  end  of  the  first  day  of  his 
life,  but  as  a  rule  he  did  not  during  the  first  month 
open  both  eyelids  equally  wide,  and  the  same  irregu- 
larity was  observed  in  closing  them. 

Various  atypic  movements  of  the  eyelids  occur  con- 
stantly during  the  first  weeks  of  a  baby's  life,  and 
through  the  observations  of  several  German  scientists 
the  fact  seems  proven  that  these  curious  motions  of  the 
eyelids  (such  as  lifting  the  eyelids  while  turning  the 
eyes  downward,  and  also  turning  the  eyeball  upward 
without  at  the  same  time  lifting  the  lid,  and  without 
wrinkling  the  forehead)  are  the  result  of  a  certain  lack 
of  co-ordination  of  the  eye  muscles  which  take  place 
later. 

The  turned-up  eyes  of  sick  children  and  of  hysteri- 
cal patients  are  only  exaggerations  of  this  earlier  atyp- 
ism  of  the  new-born.  On  the  other  hand,  the  closing 
of  the  eyes  under  a  strong  light,  and  also  the  contrac- 
tion of  the  pupils,  are  innate,  and  belong  to  the  reflex 
system  of  the  sensory  motor  nerves. 

The  hasty  closing  and  immediately  thereafter  open- 
ing of  the  eyes,  however,  which  we  call  winking,  is  not 


342  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

present  in  very  young  nurslings,  for  the  lids  remain 
unmoved  when  we  approach  the  hand  suddenly  very 
near  to  the  open  eye.  Adults,  on  the  contrary,  wink 
involuntarily  under  similar  circumstances,  even  when  a 
pane  of  glass  is  between  them  and  the  approaching 
hand. 

Preyer  took  special  note  of  the  time  when  winking 
first  occurred  in  his  child  as  a  symptom  of  fright,  and 
also  as  an  expression  of  surprise.  Not  until  almost 
three  months  old  did  the  child  positively  wink  at  each 
successive  motion  of  the  father's  hand  brought  sud- 
denly towards  his  face,  although  before  this  the  least 
touch  upon  either  the  lashes  or  lids  of  the  eyes  pro- 
voked immediate  winking. 

After  three  months,  however,  either  the  sudden  motion 
toward  his  face  or  a  loud  noise  near  him  would  cause 
winking,  and  also  the  throwing  up  of  his  arms. 

It  was  at  this  period,  too,  that  the  babe  began  to  close 
his  eyes  when  the  bath  water  touched  them, — an  occur- 
rence unknown  before.  After  this  time  winking  was  a 
constant  symptom  in  response  to  any  sudden  or  unex- 
pected impression,  and  was  succeeded  by  a  questioning 
look  when  his  father  blew  upon  his  eyelids,  the  eyes 
staring  invariably  in  the  direction  from  which  the  impres- 
sion came. 

It  may  be  remarked  here  that  the  Darwinian  assump- 
tion of  the  existence  at  the  nerve  centers  of  an  inherited 
sense  of  danger  is  quite  superfluous  to  account  for  the 


MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  EYELIDS.  343 

winking,  since  the  quick  closing  of  the  lids  is  sufficiently 
explained  by  the  fact  that  any  sudden  nervous  impres- 
sion, such  as  a  loud  sound  or  a  sudden  light,  brings 
about  a  closing  of  the  eyes,  unaccompanied  by  any 
turning  aside  of  the  head,  or  drawing  backward  of  the 
body,  such  as  occurs  later. 

On  the  twenty-eighth  day  the  child  looked  steadfastly 
for  the  first  time  at  the  face  of  his  nurse,  then  at  his 
father,  and  then  at  his  mother. 

At  the  end  of  the  seventh  month  he  opened  and  shut 
his  eyes  in  the  utmost  amazement  on  perceiving  the  quick 
folding  and  unfolding  of  a  green  fan  held  about  half  a 
yard  away  from  his  face.  His  surprise  diminished  after 
this  performance  had  been  repeated  several  times,  but 
was  revived  on  a  sudden  vanishing  and  reappearing  of 
the  fan,  and  was  indicated  by  motionlessness  of  the  eye- 
lids and  by  the  wide-open  mouth.  Desire,  however,  as 
well  as  astonishment,  is  expressed  by  the  widest  possible 
opening  of  the  eyelids.  On  taking  away  the  milk  from 
his  mouth  when  he  was  about  six  months  old,  he  fairly 
tore  his  eyelids  as  far  apart  as  possible,  and  held  them 
motionless,  at  the  same  time  looking  fixedly  at  the  milk 
with  an  indescribable  longing  expression,  and  uttering  a 
peculiar  begging  sound  with  closed  lips,  which  latter 
habit  was  continued  into  his  second  year. 

A  point  of  some  moment  for  psychogenesis  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  with  nurslings  a  feeling  of  pleasure  and 
comfort  is  always  expressed  by  wide-open  eyes,  and  that, 


344  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

on  the  contrary,  closing  the  eyes  and  pinching  the  lids 
together  is  the  expression  of  something  disagreeable.  As 
early  as  the  third  day  of  his  life,  and  again  on  the  six- 
teenth and  the  twenty-first,  this  wide  separation  of  the 
lids  on  experiencing  a  pleasant  sensation  was  shown  by 
Preyer's  child  when  taking  his  mother's  breast,  and  also 
when  being  put  into  a  warm  bath. 


MOVEMENTS  OP  THE  EYES. 

Preyer  believes  it  thoroughly  demonstrable  that  the 
human  infant  comes  into  the  world  with  a  very  incom- 
plete equipment  for  the  function  of  vision.  At  first,  the 
eyes  receive  only  impressions  of  light  and  darkness. 
Perceptions  of  space  come  later,  after  the  muscles  which 
control  the  eye  have  been  gradually  developed  into  co- 
ordinated action.  For  weeks  a  new-born  babe  rolls  its 
eyes  about  as  aimlessly  as  it  stretches  its  arms  and  legs. 

It  may  hold  one  eye  still  and  move  the  other,  or  it 
may  turn  up  the  eye  of  one  side  while  it  turns  the  other 
outwards  or  downwards  ;  in  short,  it  can  and  does  perform 
many  movements  of  the  eyes  which  would  be  utterly 
impossible  to  a  grown  person,  or  to  a  child  whose  eye 
muscles  have  once  learned  to  act  together  and  in  obe- 
dience to  the  will.  But  chance  alone  would  bring 
the  two  eyes  to  a  common  focus  sometimes,  and  the 
result  being  agreeable,  a  permanent  co-ordination  and 
conscious   act   of    seeing   would    be   gradually   evolved, 


ON   FIXING   THE    GLANCE.  345 

and   thus  unsymmetrical   movements   would   vanish   en- 
tirely. 

It  is  to  be  remarked,  however,  that  up  to  the  end  of 
the  first  year  of  life  all  sorts  of  atypical  motions  of  the 
eyes  occur  with  far  greater  ease  than  afterwards. 

ON  FIXING  THE  GLANCE. 

The  ability  to  fasten  the  glance  upon  any  object  is 
absent  in  the  new-born  child,  since  fastening  the  glance 
is  a  conscious  act,  and  the  child  is  not  yet  capable  of  a 
conscious  act  nor  a  voluntary  use  of  the  eye  muscles. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  head  is  turned  toward  the  win- 
dow, even  within  the  first  twenty- four  hours,  and  impres- 
sions are  surely  made  on  the  retina ;  but  what  is  called 
fixing  the  gaze  —  for  example,  upon  a  lighted  candle  — 
is  only  a  certain  motionlessness  of  the  eye  while  the 
bright  object  continues  within  the  field  of  vision. 

This  turning  of  the  head  or  of  the  body  toward  the 
window  in  the  first  week  of  life  is  merely  the  automatic 
seeking  of  a  repetition  of  a  sensation  once  found  pleas- 
ant, and  musk  be  classed  with  such  movements  as  the 
turning  away  of  the  head  from  a  blinding  light,  long 
before  the  child  has  any  idea  of  direction. 

The  second  step  toward  an  intelligent  use  of  the  eyes 
is  betokened  by  the  turning  of  the  head  from  one  fixed 
object  within  the  field  of  vision  to  another  object  near  it. 

Preyer's   child   did   this   on   the   eleventh   day,    look- 


346  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

ing  from  his  father's  face  to  the  candle.  At  this  age 
and  later,  children  look  mainly  at  the  ceiling,  and  this 
direction  of  the  gaze,  it  has  been  often  said,  distin- 
guishes the  young  human  being  from  the  lower  animals ; 
but  in  truth,  the  sole  reason  of  this  habit  is  the  carry- 
ing and  holding  of  the  child  in  a  horizontal  position ; 
but  for  this,  it  would  seldom  look  upward. 

The  third  step  is  characterized  by  the  following  of 
a  moving  bright  object  with  both  eyes,  while  the  head 
remains  quiet.  On  his  twenty -third  day  of  life,  Preyer's 
child  followed  with  both  his  eyes  a  candle  moved  slowly 
from  left  to  right  and  back  again.  On  the  candle  be- 
ing elevated,  the  eyes  took  that  direction  also,  and 
there  appeared  in  them  a  sudden  look  of  intelligence 
that  had  never  before  been  observed  in  them.  At  least 
twenty  times  that  day  Preyer  repeated  this  experiment, 
and  was  surprised  at  the  result,  for  most  children  do 
not  perform  such  genuine  acts  of  seeing  before  several 
months  usually ;  and  he  concludes  that  possibly  the 
evolution  of  the  mechanism  of  vision  had  been  quick- 
ened in  this  case  by  his  own  efforts  directed  towards 
it  since  the  first  day  of  the  child's  life.  * 

From  this  time  on,  active  "looking,"  in  contradis- 
tinction to  "staring,"  took  place,  and  the  proper  focus- 
ing of  the  babe's  eyes  was  found  to  be  constantly  accom- 
panied by  the  expression  of  satisfaction  or  intelligence 
already  observed.  Five  weeks  old  he  looked  at  the 
Christmas  tree  with  great  satisfaction. 


ON  FIXING  THE   GLANCE.  347 

Before  the  end  of  the  second  month,  the  oscillatory 
motions  of  bright  tassels,  balls,  etc.,  were  followed  by 
the  child  with  evident  joy,  and  about  this  time  he 
gazed  for  half  an  hour  at  a  swinging  lamp,  giving  un- 
interrupted expression  to  his  delight  by  waving  his 
arms  and  crowing.  Not  long  after  this  —  at  about  his 
tenth  week  —  he  seemed  to  recognize,  or  at  least  to  per- 
ceive as  pleasure-giving  objects,  the  faces  of  his  father 
and  mother. 

Now  begins  the  fourth  stage  of  seeing,  which  con- 
sists in  a  voluntary  directing  of  the  gaze  towards  bright 
objects,  or  towards  the  quarter  whence  sounds  come, 
and  next  to  the  constant  roving  in  search  of  new  ob- 
jects. 

At  about  the  age  of  three  months  the  eye  steadily 
pursued  the  motion  of  a  hand  when  not  moved  too  fast ; 
but  the  favorite  occupation  of  the  eyes  at  this  time 
seemed  to  be  the  following  of  the  movements  of  some 
person  going  about  from  place  to  place  in  the  room  ; 
the  child  often  turning  his  head  more  than  ninety  de- 
grees  in  order  not  to  lose   sight  of  the  person. 

In  the  middle  of  the  fourth  month  a  pendulum  vi- 
brating just  forty  times  to  the  minute  was  followed  by 
the  child's  eyes  with  the  exactness  of  a  machine,  thus 
proving  that  the  turning  of  the  eye  to  the  side  requires 
only  three  eighths  of  a  second. 

In  the  fifth  month  he  looked  inquiringly  after  his 
father  on  his  leaving  the  room. 


348  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

In  the  sixth  month  he  looked  after  a  sparrow  which 
flew  by. 

Much  longer  time  is  required  for  the  child  to  look 
after  objects  which  he  drops  from  his  hand.  As  this 
has  to  do  with  a  conception  which  every  human  being 
must  evolve  for  himself,  namely,  the  notion  of  weight, 
Preyer  paid  special  attention  to  it,  with  the  following 
results. 

In  the  eighth  month  (at  thirty  weeks)  the  child 
had  never  yet  looked  after  an  object  which  he  let  fall 
from  his  hand  to  the  floor.  A  week  later  he  occasion- 
ally looked  in  the  direction  of  something  which  he  had 
seen  or  heard  fall. 

In  the  thirty-third  week  he  was  attracted  by  the 
slow  lowering  of  an  object  held  in  his  father's  hand, 
and  followed  it  closely  with  both  eyes,  but  did  not  no- 
tice the  same  object  if  it  fell  to  the  floor. 

In  the  thirty-fourth  week  he  looked  rarely  after  the 
toy  he  dropped. 

In  the  thirty-sixth  week  he  looked  often,  but  not  reg- 
ularly, and  never  with  attention,  after  the  toys  dropped 
from  his  hand,  but  followed  with  absorbing  interest  the 
rinsrs  of  tobacco  smoke  which  rose  in  the  air  near  him. 

In  the  eleventh  month  (forty-third  week)  he  looked 
frequently,  and  with  an  expression  of  astonishment,  after 
things  he  threw  to  the  floor. 

In  the  twelfth  month  he  threw  all  sorts  of  objects 
down,   and   looked   after   them   often.      Once  he   threw 


SEEING   NEAR   AND   FAR.  349 

down  eight  times  in  succession  a  book  which  had  been 
given  him,  and  watched  its  fall  with  breathless  atten- 
tion. 

In  the  sixty-  third  and  sixty-fifth  weeks  he  threw  down 
things  which  displeased  him,  or  of  which  he  had  grown 
tired,  and  generally  followed  them   with  his  eyes. 

In  the  first  quarter  of  the  second  year  he  seldom 
threw  things  down,  because  he  had  been  taught  not  to 
do  so. 

In  the  middle  of  the  second  year  his  greatest  delight 
was  in  watching  the  bouncing  of  a  ball  from  the  floor,  and 
his  eyes  followed  the  ball  with  the  utmost  precision. 

The  boy's  recognition,  therefore,  of  the  fact  that  objects 
are  heavy,  and  will  fall  if  not  supported,  seemed  to  take 
place  in  this  case  in  the  forty-third  week  of  his  life. 
It  would  be  highly  interesting  to  know  what  the  experi- 
ence of  other  children  is,  writh  respect  to  this  matter  of 
observing  falling  objects,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  a 
mass  of  observations  may  be  accumulated  as  soon  as 
mothers  are  willing  to  see  the  scientific  and  practical 
bearings  of  such  subjects. 

SEEING  NEAR  AND  FAR. 

The  approximation  of  a  lighted  candle  or  a  piece  of 
shining  metal  to  the  face  of  a  babe  of  from  two  to  six 
weeks  old,  and  not  yet  able  to  move  his  eyes,  occasions 
that   convergence   of    the   pupils    known   as   cross-eyes. 


350  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

This  is  a  purely  reflex  movement,  and  is  therefore  in- 
voluntary. 

Owing  to  the  still  incomplete  arrangements  for  seeing, 
there  is  no  such  co-ordination  of  muscles  nor  such  func- 
tional preparation  of  nerves  as  would  make  a  sharply 
defined  picture  on  the  retina  possible.  There  is  only 
the  sensation  of  brightness  and  darkness.  Probably 
the  first  images  printed  on  the  child's  retina  are  the 
faces  of  his  mother  and  nurse ;  and  this  because  they, 
oftener  than  any  other  objects,  are  present  in  his  line  of 
sight. 

The  recognition  of  the  fact  that  it  is  unnecessary  to 
bring  an  object  near  to  himself  in  order  to  see  it,  is 
probably  a  logical  process,  and  therefore  the  result  of 
experience.  Still,  this  cannot  occur  until  after  the  will 
is  developed.  For  really  to  fix  an  object  with  the  eye 
implies  will ;  since  there  must  be  an  intelligent  iocusing 
of  the  object  in  order  to  bring  it  plainly  and  clearly 
into  just  the  right  spot  to  be  seen.  The  staring  at  a 
bright  flame,  etc.,  is  not  true  vision,  but  merely  the 
physical  response  to  an  impression  of  light ;  and  even 
after  the  power  to  adjust  the  eyes  is  more  or  less  per- 
fected, and  voluntary  fixing  of  the  gaze  takes  place, 
it  must  still  be  very  inexact,  because  one  often  remarks 
unsymmetrical  movements  of  the  eyes  of  children  after 
this  period. 

In  fact,  a  genuine  "  looking  "  never  can  be  said  to  take 
place  until  the  child  voluntarily  follows  a  moving  object 


SEEING   NEAR   AND   FAR.  351 

with  his  eyes,  and  this  act  occurs  usually  after  the  lapse 
of  three  months. 

It  is  not  until  much  later,  however,  that  the  power  to 
estimate  the  different  distances  of  objects  is  established. 
How  slowly  the  idea  of  space  develops  in  a  child's  mind 
was  shown  by  the  following  observations  of  Prof.  Preyer 
upon  his  child,  who  had,  of  course,  constant  practice  in 
looking  at  the  objects  around  him,  and  who  proved  after- 
wards to  have  unusually  sharp  sight. 

In  the  seventeenth  week  he  moved  towards  his  eyes 
such  things  as  he  accidentally  grasped,  and  often  tried  to 
grasp  objects  which  were  at  least  twice  the  length  of  his 
arm  distant ;  this  continued  through  the  eighteenth  week, 
or  till  towards  the  end  of  the  child's  fourth  month  of  life. 
By  the  eleventh  month,  he  had  almost  ceased  to  carry  ob- 
jects towards  his  eyes  and  into  his  mouth,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  gazed  at  and  handled  them  with  the  absorbed 
attention  whose  sign  was  always  the  pointing  of  the  lips 
already  alluded  to. 

It  was  observed  that  when  a  stranger  came  into  his  im- 
mediate neighborhood,  the  child's  countenance  took  on  an 
expression  of  the  utmost  astonishment,  mouth  and  eyes 
wide  open,  and  all  the  muscles  remaining  motionless  in 
just  the  positions  they  were  in  when  his  eyes  fell  upon 
the  stranger.  The  retinal  image  must  have  been  quite 
clear,  therefore,  since  it  was  so  evidently  distinguished 
from  other  retinal  images. 

The  same  thing  was  proved  by  his  looking  attentively 


352  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

at  and  playing  for  a  long  time  with  a  single  long  hair  of 
his  mother's,  — this  in  the  forty-seventh  week. 

In  the  fifty-first  week  some  men  sawing  wood  at  a 
distance  of  a  hundred  feet  occasioned  much  pleasure  to 
the  child,  who  looked  at  them  attentively,  thus  proving 
that  he  could  see  plainly  at  a  distance  as  well  as  near ; 
but  that  he  did  not  yet  have  a  notion  of  the  difference  in 
distances  was  proved  by  the  fact  that  at  fifty-eight  weeks, 
he  tried  again  and  again  to  grasp  a  lamp  which  was 
shining  in  the  ceiling  of  the  railway  car  in  which  he 
traveled. 

At  the  sixty-eighth  week  (a  year  and  four  months) 
the  child  still  reached  too  short,  too  far  to  the  right 
or  left,  too  high  and  too  low. 

When  he  was  a  year  and  eleven  months  old  (ninety- 
six  weeks),  Preyer  threw  a  piece  of  paper  from  the 
second-story  window  to  him  in  the  garden  below,  and 
the  boy  picked  it  up,  looked  at  it,  and  reached  it 
toward  his  father,  at  the  same  time  evincing  earnestly 
his  desire  that  his  father  should  take  it  from  his  hand, 
—  a  striking  enough  proof  of  how  little  he  was  able  to 
estimate  distance. 

When  a  little  over  two  years  old  (in  the  one  hun- 
dred and  eighth  week)  he  recognized,  evidently,  in 
small  photographs  the  faces  of  persons  he  knew,  —  the 
best  proof  of  perfect  accommodation  of  the  apparatus 
of  vision.  And  a  month  later  he  recognized  in  a  book 
the   pictures    of    household   utensils   equally   well    when 


SEEING   NEAR   AND   FAR.  353 

the  book  was  held  three  feet  from  his  eyes  and  when 
it  was  held  three  inches  from  his  eyes. 

All  this  shows  that  the  eyes  are  perfectly  well  able 
to  see  objects  at  very  different  distances  without  know- 
ing that  they  are  at  different  distances,  indeed,  without 
knowing  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  difference  in 
distance.  This  latter  fact  he  learns  probably  by  the 
moving  of  his  own  person  to  reach  different  objects, 
and  also  by  his  failure  to  grasp  far-off  objects  wThen  he 
reaches  his  hand  towrard  them. 

That  a  child  learns,  however,  to  take  an  object  far 
sooner  than  to  give  one,  is  doubtless  due  to  the  fact 
of  its  immensely  greater  experience  in  taking.  It  is 
always  reaching  after  objects,  long  before  it  makes  any 
attempt  to  give  them. 

Altogether  the  child's  orientation  of  itself  in  space 
requires  much  longer  time  than  is  "required  by  the 
young  of  lower  animals ;  for  example,  the  chick,  which 
learns  correctly  in  a  few  hours  the  distance  of  the 
grain  it  feeds  upon. 

Man  gains  the  notion  of  space  by  many  a  round- 
about and  by  many  single  experiences ;  he  discovers  it, 
in  a  word,  whereas  the  lower  animals  inherit  a  nerve 
mechanism  which  seems  to  render  individual  acquisition 
in  this  direction  unnecessary. 

With  the  human  infant  the  relations  of  right,  left, 
up,  down,  are  learned  by  stretching  the  arms,  and  legs, 
etc.,   but   not  the   space   relations   behind    and    before, 


354  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

because  the  child  cannot  see  behind,  and  learns  these 
relations  after  he  has  become  accustomed  to  seizing 
things. 

As  to  the  question  of  whether  the  eyes  of  babies  are 
naturally  long  or  short  sighted,  authorities  differ ;  the 
preponderance,  however,  at  present  seems  to  be  in  fiivor 
of  the  belief  that  most  children  are  born   long-sighted. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  question  of  a  child's  ca- 
pacity to  see  only  near  objects  plainly  during  the  first 
years  of  his  life  cannot  be  without  influence  on  his 
whole  mental  development,  but  evidence  is  lacking  as 
yet  for  the  determination  of  this  point. 

One  thing,  however,  Pjeyer  insists  on  with  great 
firmness,  and  that  is,  that  the  continued  occupation 
of  very  young  children  with  fine  work,  such  as  perfo- 
rating fine  threads,  sewing,  weaving,  etc.,  if  they,  as 
is  often  the  case,  are  overdone  in  kindergartens,  will 
necessarily  become  injurious  to  the  eyes.  Looking 
closely  at  small  objects  with  effort  and  with  persist- 
ence is,  even  by  the  best  light,  hurtful  to  the  sight 
of  children  of  three  to  six  years  old,  and  must  be  ab- 
solutely prohibited  by  lamp-light;  otherwise  the  appa- 
ratus of  accommodation  of  focus  will  be  exercised  too 
disproportionately  for  near  seeing,  and  will  foster  short- 
sightedness.* 


*  See  Miss  E.  Marwedel's  treatment  of  this  point  in  her  Kindergarten. 


THE    MEANING   OF    WHAT   IS    SEEN,  355 

THE   MEANING   OF    WHAT   IS    SEEN. 

0 

Many  think  that  even  after  the  baby  has  learned  to 
distinguish  single  objects,  he  sees  all  things  as  if  painted 
on  a  plane  surface,  and  has  no  notion  that  anything  is 
outside  of  his  own  eyes,  no  notion  that  anything  moves 
toward  him  ;  has  only,  in  a  word,  a  vague  sensation  of 
light  and  dark.  But  this  is  true  only  of  the  first  days  of 
the  baby's  life,  as  could  be  made  more  than  probable  by 
adducing  the  evidence  that  Preyer  gives  as  to  the  early 
convergence  of  the  lines  of  vision,  attention  to  certain 
spots  in  the  field  of  sight,  pleasure  and  displeasure  at 
certain  colors,  etc. 

In  the  sixth  month,  when  the  father  nodded  to  him 
pleasantly,  the  boy  laughed,  and  threw  his  arms  up  and 
down,  but  not  so  if  a  stranger  nodded.  He  also  noticed 
at  this  age  his  father's  reflection  in  a  mirror,  became  sud- 
denly attentive,  and  turned  quickly  towards  his  father  as  if 
to  compare  or  to  confirm  his  first  impression  of  the  phe- 
nomenon. In  the  seventh  month  he  stared  fixedly  at  a 
strange  face  with  great  amazement,  recognizing  it,  there- 
fore, as  strange.  In  the  eighth  month  all  sorts  of  bottles, 
wine  bottles,  water  bottles,  or  nursing  bottles,  excited  in 
him  the  most  intense  interest.  He  gazed  at  them,  he 
begged  for  them,  and  always  recognized  them  at  a  dis- 
tance of  three  or  more  yards.  This  interest  is  explained 
by  the  fact  that  he  took  his  milk  from  a  bottle,  which  he 
held  in  his  hands  several  times  a  day,  and  saw  close  at 


356  CONSCIOUS   MOTHEKHOOD. 

hand,  and  thus  naturally  recognized  similar  objects  more 
easily  than  anything  else  whatever,  except  human  faces. 

In  the  ninth  month  he  showed  the  same  sort  of  interest 
in  boxes  which  resembled  those  in  which  baby-food  was 
kept.  But  he  also  manifested  an  increasing  interest  in 
all  his  surroundings,  especially  in  all  new  and  moving  ob- 
jects, and  turned  his  head  quickly  whenever  the  door  was 
opened  or  closed. 

In  the  tenth  month  the  child  showed  the  liveliest  and 
clearest  understanding  of  all  such  impressions  as  were 
connected  with  his  food,  watching  its  preparation  with 
wide-open  shining  eyes  and  eager,   longing  expression. 

In  the  eleventh  month  the  child  was  hardly  quiet  a 
moment  when  awake ;  his  eyes  roved  about  incessantly, 
and  his  head  was  kept  moving  too,  in  the  attempt  to  look 
at  every  one  who  came  near,  or  passed  within  his  sight. 

Although  these  observations  show  an  early  develop- 
ment of  visual  recognition,  as  far  as  light,  faces,  and 
large  moving  bodies  are  concerned,  still  the  following 
will  prove  how  imperfect  was  the  interpretation  of  new 
impressions,  both  at  this  period  and  later. 

In  the  fifteenth  month  the  child  tried  repeatedly  to 
grasp  the  candle  flame,  reaching  too  short,  however,  and 
once  clutched  the  flame  itself,  but  this  he  never  did 
again. 

In  the  sixteenth  month  he  tried  to  catch  the  streams  of 
water  which  dripped  from  the  sponge  with  which  his  head 
was  being  bathed.     He  seemed  extremely  surprised  that 


THE   MEANING   OF  WHAT   IS   SEEN.  357 

he  did  not  succeed  in  holding  them  in  his  fingers  like  so 
many  threads. 

In  the  seventeenth  month  he  was  disappointed  at  the 
constant  ill-success  of  his  efforts  to  seize  a  cloud  of  to- 
bacco-smoke which  floated  between  him  and  the  lamp  at 
the  distance  of  a  few  feet;  proving,  of  course,  how  incor- 
rect was  his  apprehension  of  distance  and  of  the  substan- 
tiality of  objects. 

In  the  eighteenth  month,  seeing  a  black-clad  man  unex- 
pectedly, the  child  became  suddenly  quiet,  stared  at  him 
a  whole  minute,  then  fled  to  his  father,  and  gazed  motion- 
lessly  at  the  tall  figure  until  the  stranger  left,  when  he 
immediately  became  rollicking  again,  and  repeated  "  atta- 
atta"  with  satisfaction.  In  this  case,  evidently,  it  was  the 
unexpectedness  of  the  impression  that  had  awakened  anx- 
iety in  the  child,  for  the  gentleman  was  entirely  friendly 
to  him ;  but  it  was  not  till  after  the  completion  of  his 
second  year  that  he  ceased  to  be  disturbed  by  the  appear- 
ance of  a  black-clad  man. 

In  the  twenty-second  month  new  impressions  seemed 
to  attract  attention  in  a  still  higher  degree,  and  what  was 
mysterious  was  increasingly  interesting. 

In  the  twenty-fourth  month  he  looked  with  great  atten- 
tion at  moving  animals,  following  even  the  slow  snail  and 
the  beetle  with  his  eyes,  and  seeming  by  his  questioning 
expression  to  find  them  unintelligible.  He  treated  them 
very  tenderly,  almost  shyly. 

At  this  time,  too,  the  child's  understanding  of  actions 


358  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

and  of  the  use  of  all  kinds  of  tools  seemed  much  further 
advanced  than  his  power  to  interpret  pictorial  representa- 
tions, although  he  had  proved  the  inexhaustibleness  of  his 
imagination  by  the  great  variety  of  his  plays. 

Prof.  Sigismund's  child  at  the  end  of  his  second  year 
called  a  circle  a  "  plate,"  a  square  he  named  a  bonbon, 
and  his  father's  shadow,  which  at  first  he  was  afraid 
of,  he  suddenly  recognized  as  a  "picture,"  and  cried  out 
joyfully, "  Papa."  Preyer's  boy  at  a  later  age  than  this 
called  a  square  a  "window,"  a  triangle  a  "roof,"  a  circle 
a  "rin£,"  and  four  little  dots  "  some  birds." 

Not  till  after  the  third  year  did  Preyer's  child  evince  a 
capacity  to  represent  well-known  objects  by  lines  upon 
paper,  or  by  cutting  out.  Before  this  he  wished  to  draw, 
and  attempted  to  represent,  with  all  sorts  of  lines,  an  en- 
gine, a  horse,  a  spoon,  a  plate,  and  a  bottle,  but  he  did 
not  succeed  without  help.  Preyer  says  he  knew  of  but 
one  child  who  could,  before  he  was  four  years  old,  and 
without  any  instruction,  draw,  or  cut  out,  figures  of  ani- 
mals, giraffes,  horses,  lions,  etc.,  and  even  a  man  in  a  sit- 
ting posture,  so  accurately  that  any  one  would  recognize 
at  once  the  object  represented.  Such  rare  talent  indicates 
a  hereditary  sense  of  form.  An  average  child  at  that  age 
is  not  even  able  to  draw  a  circle,  but  this  child  could  not 
eat  a  piece  of  bread  without  biting  out  of  it  representa- 
tions of  animals.  He  also  drew  with  a  stick  in  the  sand, 
modeled  in  clay,  saw  pictures  in  the  clouds,  and  would 
devote  himself  (quite  from  inward  impulsion)  for  months 


THE   MEANING  OF   WHAT   IS   SEEN.  359 

at  a  time,  with  the  greatest  perseverance,  to  the  practice 
of  his  art. 

Preyer's  boy's  daily  and  pressing  desire  and  expressed 
wish  to  draw  pictures  of  a  locomotive  engine  (this  was 
after  the  thirtieth  month)  arose  doubtless  from  seeing 
that  large  moving  mass  so  often.  This  object  interested 
him  greatly  at  an  early  age,  on  account,  probably,  of  its 
causing  such  great  alterations  in  the  field  of  vision,  and 
so  exciting  a  large  number  of  nerve  fibers. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  SENSE  OF  HEABING. 

The  observations  on  the  gradual  development  of  the 
sense  of  hearing  have  reference  to  the  short  duration  of 
normal  deafness  in  new-born  children,  and  to  the  first 
impression  of  sound-waves,  and  are  followed  by  some 
statements  concerning  the  hearing  of  new-born  animals. 

All  children  are  deaf  when  first  born.  Formerly  this 
was  attributed  to  the  filling  up  of  the  tympanic  cavity 
with  mucus,  and  that  this  would  obtain  until  the  cavity 
had  been  emptied ;  but  it  is  at  present  generally  ac- 
cepted that  this  temporary  deafness  is  owing  to  a  want 
of  air  in  the' tympanic  cavity,  before  breathing  is  fully 
regulated  in  the  lungs.  Prof.  Preyer,  giving  an  expla- 
nation of  the  successive  changes,  says:  "I  must  protest 
against  the  opinion  that  children  three  or  four  weeks  old 
have  a  small  hearing  capacity,  and  that  hence  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  decide  whether  a  given  child  is  deaf  or  not.  The 
nursling  one  or  two  days  old  already  reacts  against 
sound ;  and  if  this  should  not  be  the  case,  it  will  be 
found  in  the  tardiness  with  which  the  tympanum  becomes 
penetrable  by  air.  According  to  my  own  observations, 
and  those  of  a  number  of  reliable  mothers,  it  cannot  be 


THE   FIRST   SENSATIONS    OF   SOUND.  .     361 

doubted  that  a  child,  when  in  a  normal  condition,  hears 
after  the  first  few  days  the  sound  of  the  human  voice. 
A  somewhat  protracted  dullness  of  hearing  is  useful  to 
the  baby  by  preventing  the  often  too  numerous  reflex 
movements,  and  then  with  a  tendency  to  convulsions. 
But  in  case  at  the  aire  of  four  weeks  no  sign  of  hearing 
should  follow  a  loud  sound,  a  suspicion  of  deafness  will 
be  justified." 

THE  FIRST  SENSATIONS  AND  PERCEPTIONS   OP 
SOUND. 

It  is  extremely  difficult  to  decide  how  many  hours, 
days,  or  weeks  elapse  before  the  first  sensation  of  sound 
is  felt,  because  what  seems  proofs  of  hearing  may  in 
reality  be  but  the  signs  of  other  strong  sensations.  For 
example,  starting,  throwing  up  the  arms,  movements  of 
the  eyelids,  crying,  may  be  the  signs  of  fright,  etc. 

Kussmaul  says  he  could  strike  the  loudest  and  most  in- 
harmonious chords  close  to  the  ears  of  new-born  children 
who  were  awake,  without  affecting  their  nerves  at  all. 

Preyer's  child  jerked  both  arms  spasmodically  after  a 
loud  call  emitted  by  the  father  in  the  twenty-first  hour 
of  the  child's  life,  a  result  which  might  easily  have  been 
occasioned  by  the  speaker's  breath  striking  the  child's 
face,  especially  as  whistling,  clapping  of  the  hands,  and 
speaking  in  the  ordinary  voice  had  no  effect. 

It  was  not  until  the  third  day  that  Preyer  was  assured 
of  his  child's   power  of  hearing.     On  that  day  the  clap- 


362  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

ping  of  hands  and  whistling  near  him  caused  him  to  half 
open  his  eyes  while  lying  in  a  quiet,  satisfied  way.  As 
this  action  was  repeated  several  times  on  the  fourth  day, 
while  it  did  not  follow  the  same  noises  on  the  third  day, 
it  seemed  conclusive  that  hearing  was  established  when 
the  child  was  four  days  old.  It  was  also  on  the  fourth 
day  that  the  child  stopped  crying  on  his  father  whistling 
near  him.  When  ten  or  twelve  days  old  his  father's 
voice  always  quieted  him,  at  the  same  time  occasioning 
an  indescribable  expression. 

On  his  twenty-fifth  day,  speaking  softly  to  him  induced 
repeated  closing  of  the  eyelids,  and  the  next  day  he 
started  as  a  soup  tureen  was  noisily  covered,  though  he 
could  not  see  it.  This  proves  that  strong  waves  of  sound 
startled  him  as  much  as  an  adult. 

On  the  thirtieth  day,  as  the  child  lay  in  comfortable 
rest,  Preyer  stood  before  him,  and  without  moving,  said 
in  a  loud  voice,  "Yes!"  Suddenly  he  threw  his  arms 
up  high,  jerking  the  upper  part  of  his  body  also,  wrhile 
the  happy  expression  of  his  face  wras  replaced  by  a  very 
serious  one.  This  was  repeated  on  the  slamming  of  the 
door. 

In  the  fifth  wTeek  the  sensitiveness  to  sound  was  so 
great  that  the  child  seldom  slept  in  the  daytime,  if  per- 
sons in  the  room  spoke  or  walked  about,  and  always 
turned  his  head  when  any  one  approached  the  bed.  In 
his  sixth  week  his  crying  was  stilled  at  once  by  the  sing- 
ing of  his  mother.     When  she  sang  first,  he  opened  his 


THE   FIRST   SENSATIONS    OF   SOUND.  363 

eyes  very  wide,  showing  symptoms  of  astonishment,  also 
the  next  time,  and  then  and  afterwards  seemed  to  connect 
the  sound  with  the  oval  shape  of  his  mother's  mouth, 
which  seems  usually  the  case  with  children  of  four 
months,  who  laugh  and  shout  as  soon  as  the  mother 
sinjrs.  In  the  seventh  week  the  sense  of  fright  from 
loud  sound  was  still  greater ;  while  he  was  sleeping  some 
keys  dropped  on  the  floor,  and  his  arms  were  imme- 
diately stretched  out,  and  remained  so  for  two  minutes, 
unchanged,  with  all  the  fingers  spread.  The  position  was 
like  the  spread-out  wings  of  a  frightened  bird. 

For  harmonious  musical  sounds  the  child  had  a  great 
liking,  the  expression  of  his  face  being  very  happy  while 
his  mother  sang ;  and  even  when  hungry,  a  soft  cradle 
song  would  keep  him  patient,  when  speaking  proved 
quite  insufficient. 

At  the  eighth  week  the  child  heard  piano  music  for 
the  first  time.  He  showed  an  unusual  tension  in  the 
eyes,  and  a  quick  movement  of  the  arms  and  legs, 
accompanied  by  laughter. 

Pleasure  in  music  remained  unchanged,  so  that  more 
than  a  year  before  the  first  imperfect  attempt  at  speaking, 
the  distinction  between  musical  and  other  sounds  was 
fully  developed. 

He  frequently  at  the  age  of  two  or  three  months  showed 
his  pleasure  in  music  by  certain  responsive  sounds  of 
his  own  ;  and  any  noise  was  responded  to  by  a  quick 
opening  or  closing  of  the  eyes,  and  a  throwing  up  of  the 


364  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

arms,  no  matter  what  the  position  of  the  body.  At 
seven  or  eight  months  the  movements  of  the  arms  were 
not  so  frequent.  At  eleven  weeks,  Preyer  noticed  for  the 
first  time  what  had  not  been  observed  by  others  before 
the  second  quarter  of  infant  life,  namely,  the  turning  of 
the  head  in  the  direction  from  which  the  sound  came. 
The  father  knocked  on  a  mirror  behind  him,  and  he  at 
once  turned  his  head  in  the  direction  of  the  sound. 

Altogether  at  this  period  it  was  surprising  how  easily 
his  attention  could  be  directed  to  simple  tones,  scales, 
and  harmonies  ;  and  how,  forgetting  any  chance  uneasi- 
ness, he  would  listen,  with  a  peculiar  tension  of  the 
eyelids. 

In  the  twelfth  week  the  turning  of  the  hand  towards 
the  sound  was  very  quick,  though  the  right  direction  was 
not  always  found  at  once.  In  the  sixteenth  week  the 
head  turned  toward  the  sound  with  absolute  certainty. 
Before  this,  a  hand-organ  in  the  garden  or  the  sound  of 
voices  in  the  next  room  was  not  noticed,  but  now  they 
provoked  lively  motions  of  the  head,  and  a  changed  and 
interested  expression  of  countenance. 

The  first  noise  artificially  produced  by  himself  was  the 
rumpling  of  some  paper  in  his  hands,  and  seeming  to 
give  him   pleasure,  it  was  repeated  very  often. 

When  he  was  twenty-one  weeks  old,  the  gong  beaten 
to  chain  his  attention  while  being  photographed,  rendered 
him  absolutely  motionless,  his  eyes  staring  fixedly  at 
the   metallic   plate.     And,    indeed,    his   hearing   was   so 


THE   FIRST    SENSATIONS    OF    SOUND.  365 

developed  by  the  fifth  month  that  he  would  stop  nursing 
to  observe  the  cause  of  any  noise  in  his  neighborhood. 
When  the  half-year  had  been  reached,  he  would  often 
stare  with  fixed,  wide-open  eyes  and  open  mouth  at  his 
father's  face,  while  the  latter  sang  before  him,  and  he 
crowed  exultingly  when  he  heard  military  music. 

At  eight  months  he  winked  suddenly  whenever  he 
heard,  not  merely  loud  sounds,  but  any  new  sounds ; 
for  example,  when  his  father  imitated  the  noises  of 
animals,  he  evinced  not  only  fright  but  astonishment. 
Fright  caused  a  jerking  of  the  whole,  instead  of,  as 
formerly,  only  the  arms  and  legs. 

In  proof,  however,  that  the  starting  'was  not  always 
an  expression  of  fright,  it  is  mentioned  that  at  nine 
months  the  child  replaced  more  than  a  dozen  times  the 
lid  of  a  large  glass  water-bottle,  each  time  making 
so  much  noise  with  it  that  he  winked  and  shuddered, 
while  his  face  wore  an  absorbed  expression  of  attention. 
As  he  was  eager  to  repeat  the  act,  it  was  evident  that 
his  enjoyment  of  those  sensations  of  touch  and  sight 
outweighed  the  less  pleasant  effect  of  the  accompanying 
sound  impression,  which  was  nevertheless  so  intense  as 
to  cause  the  self-motions  described. 

During  teething  the  irritability  of  the  auditory  nerves 
was  so  much  greater  that  even  a  loud  word  would  often 
occasion  winking,  staring,  quick  breathing,  screaming, 
and  even  tears. 

When  a  year  old,  the  crying  child  was  quieted  by  the 


366  CONSCIOUS   MOTHEKHOOD. 

repeated  sound  of  "sh"as  easily  as  in  the  first  month. 
No  other  sound  —  neither  sharp  "ss"  nor  "pst" —  had 
any  such  effect ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  all  singing  had, 
even  when  the  notes  were  false. 

At  about  this  time,  three  hundred  and  nineteen  days, 
is  to  be  noted  a  remarkable  acoustic  experiment,  which 
testified  to  the  great  intellectual  progress  of  this  child. 
He  struck  a  plate  several  times  with  a  spoon.  Happen- 
ing to  touch  the  plate  with  his  other  hand  once  at  the 
same  time  that  the  spoon  fell  on  the  plate,  the  sound 
was  damped,  and  the  difference  immediately  noticed 
by  the  child,  who  then  changed  the  spoon  to  the  other 
hand  and  repeated  the  experiment  precisely  as  before, 
dampening  the  sound  with  the  hand  which  formerly 
held  the  spoon,  etc.  In  the  evening  this  was  repeated 
again  with  the  same  result.  Manifestly,  the  function 
of  causality  existed  in  vigorous  development,  and  the 
question  the  child,  still  wholly  without  verbal  speech, 
tried  to  decide  was,  "  Is  the  cause  of  this  difference  in 
the  hand,  or  in  the  plate?" 

At  this  time,  also,  he  was  accustomed  to  observe  the 
noisy  filling  of  the  coal  stove  every  morning  in  the 
room  where  he  was ;  one  morning  he  heard  the  same 
noise  from  the  next  room,  where  the  stove  was  being 
filled,  and  immediately  turned  his  head  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  sound.  Seeing  nothing,  he  twisted  his  head 
around  almost  one  hundred  and  eighty  degrees  and  looked 
inquiringly  at  the  stove  in  his  own  room,  showing  again, 


THE    FIRST    SENSATIONS    OF   SOUND.  367 

conclusively,  the  exercise  of  the  logical  faculty.  Such 
occurrences  were  not  unfrequent.  Once,  for  example, 
at  thirty  months,  he  chanced  to  cover  one  ear  with  his 
hand  while  a  teakettle  was  boiling  on  the  table  before 
him.  At  once  he  perceived  the  lessening  of  the  sound, 
took  his  hand  away,  and  listened  with  open  mouth  and 
astonished  eyes  to  the  altered  noise.  Five  or  six  times 
he  placed  his  hand  over  his  ear  to  confirm  the  connec- 
tion between  the  changed  sound  and  the  position  of  the 
hand,  and  then  he  ceased  to  care  for  it,  because  he  be- 
came accustomed  to  it. 

After  the  first  year  he  would,  on  striking  the  piano 
keys,  turn  around  from  time  to  time  to  see  if  any  one 
was  listening  to  him.  He  laughed  at  the  singing  of  a 
canary ;  he  laughed  at  all  new  sounds,  such  as  hawk- 
ing, gurgling,  and  even  at  thunder.  A  favorite  acous- 
tic amusement  was  the  holding  of  a  watch  at  his  ear  to 
note  the  ticking.  Sometimes  he  held  it  on  the  head 
or  the  cheek,  or  the  father  held  it  on  top  of  the  boy's 
head,  the  attentive  expression  showing  that  he  heard 
it,  and  that,  therefore,  the  sound-conducting  power  of 
the  bones  must  have  been  long  established. 

His  enjoyment  of  music  increased  very  sensibly  from 
the  first  quarter  up  to  the  third.  But  it  was  not  until 
the  last  half  of  the  second  year  that  the  child's  mo- 
tions—  which  had  always  been  lively  under  the  influ- 
ence of  all  sorts  of  music  —  kept  perfect  time.  He 
danced,  indeed,  in  an  unrhythmical  fashion,  at  twenty- 

Bixvwsity; 


368  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

one  months,  and  a  little  later  kept  time  with  his  arms 
or  with  one  arm  tolerably  correctly,  trying  at  the  same 
time  to  sing  a  song;  which  last,  however,  was  only  later 
partially  successful.  He  preferred  striking  the  piano 
with  both  hands  at  once  (a  single  key  with  each  hand) 
to  playing  on  the  fife  and  drum  (at  two  years),  and  it 
is  remarkable,  in  view  of  his  acute  auditory  sense  for 
noises  and  vocals,  that  even  at  the  end  of  the  third 
year  it  was  impossible  to  teach  him  to  distinguish  the 
three  tones,  C,  D,  E. 

Another  child,  on  the  contrary,  a  little  girl,  could  at 
nine  months  sing  correctly  every  note  as  it  was  struck 
on  the  piano ;  disliked  discords,  and  cried  violently 
whenever  a  tin  trumpet  was  blown.  This  child  and 
two  of  her  sisters  could  sing  melodies  before  they  could 
speak.  Not  only  the  volume  and  shade  of  a  tone  (moll) 
are  fully  understood  by  such  musical  children  at  eight 
months,  who  followed  with  great  attention  any  musical 
performance.  One  child  sang  itself  to  sleep  at  nine 
months  old,  and  at  nineteen  months  sang  all  little  songs 
correctly,  clapping  her  hands  rhythmically.  One  other 
little  girl,  eleven  months  old,  jumped  and  turned  her 
body  and  hands,  on  hearing  music. 

In  the  third  year  it  was  hard  to  awaken  my  boy  by 
noises.  He  very  often  fell  asleep,  even  when  there  was 
much  noise  near  him. 

In  comparing  some  observations  of  Darwin  and 
Demme   with    others,   Prof.  Preyer   concludes   with   the 


THE    HEARING   OF   NEW-BORN   ANIMALS.  369 

remark   that    individual    differences    depend    greatly    on 
hereditary  influences. 

THE  HEARING  OP  NEW-BORN  ANIMALS. 

Prof.  Preyer  gives  a  very  interesting  chapter  on  the 
effects  of  sounds  on  animals,  proving  that  the  sense  of 
hearing  in  the  guinea-pig  and  the  chicken  is  developed 
at  birth,  and  is  enormously  superior,  comparatively,  to 
that  of  the  child. 

We  have  to  admit  that  the  child  in  the  beginning 
hears  nothing  ;  afterwards  hears  many  things  indistinctly  ; 
and  only  little  by  little,  in  the  largest  number  of  indis- 
tinct sounds,  something  is  recognized ;  and  finally,  many 
things  are  heard  distinctly,  just  as  the  adult  acquires  a 
language  in  a  foreign  country.  Strong,  high  tones  are 
more  quickly  perceived  than  deep  tones.  Every  mother 
loses  many  thousand  words  in  speaking,  whispering,  and 
singing  to  her  child,  before  one  is  heard ;  and  many 
thousand  words  are  said  before  the  child  understands 
thein.  If  not  so  exercised,  the  child  would  learn  to 
speak  much  later. 


CHAPTER  in. 

THE   SENSE    OF    TOUCH. 

The  observations  about  the  sense  of  touch  of  the  new- 
born child  and  the  nursling  refer  more  to  the  sensibility 
of  touch.  After  an  extended  scientific  analysis  of  the 
nervous  condition  before  birth,  and  that  by  a  scientific 
demonstration  of  the  condition  of  the  foetus  and  its  partial 
nervous  irritability  of  the  tongue  and  lips,  Prof.  Preyer 
comes  to  the  conclusion  that,  although  "the  new-born 
child  is  not  as  fully  aware  of  pain  "  as  the  adult,  the 
difference  between  pain  and  pleasure  is  clearly  under- 
stood. He  refers  to  the  nervous  sensation  of  the 
tongue,  the  sucking  immediately  after  birth,  and  the 
mimical  power  of  expressing  the  difference  between 
bitter  and  sweet. 

Nose :  in  touching  the  point  of  the  nose,  the  child 
closes  both  his  eyes. 

Palm  of  the  hand  :  pressing  a  finger  into  his  hand,  he 
will  cling  to  it.  A  pushing  motion  is  followed  by  a 
movement  of  the  other  arm.  The  sensibility  in  the  palm 
of  the  hand  is  less  than  that  of  the  skin  of  the  face. 

The  touch  of  the  under  part  of  the  foot  causes  the 
stretching  of  the  toes.     Beating  against  it  leads  to  a  dorsal 


THR   SENSE    OF   TOUCH.  371 

flexion  of  the  foot,  the  knee,  and  hip  joint.  Pricking  it 
with  a  needle  shows  reflexes  of  pain. 

Between  two  and  twelve  weeks  old  the  greatest  rest- 
lessness, crying,  and  discontent  of  the  child  were  immedi- 
ately silenced  by  putting  the  finger  into  the  ear ;  the  eye 
showed  great  tension.  The  question  arises,  Was  this 
the  effect  of  diminishing  the  noise  by  closing  the  ear,  or 
was  it  an  acoustic  irritation?  But  after  the  first  half-year 
this  experiment  ceased. 

The  sensitiveness  of  the  skin  of  the  forehead  is  very 
great,  which  is  very  often  demonstrated  by  the  early  act 
of  baptized  children,  and  it  may  be  called  greater  than 
that  of  adults. 

It  seems  very  difficult  to  fix  the  time  when  the  fre- 
quent reflex  motions  of  the  sense  of  touch  cease,  and 
the  normal  condition  of  the  adult  is  reached.  Notwith- 
standing some  inherited  individual  differences,  and  the 
abnormal  increase  of  reflex  motions  perceived,  we  may 
conclude  that  among  the  new  born  the  wearing  out  of 
the  nerve  traces  by  the  constant  repetition  of  the  irri- 
tation, that  is,  the  final  decrease  of  the  sensibility  of 
touch,  is  of  great  importance. 

Before  birth  and  at  the  beginning  of  life  these  nerve 
traces  are  not  so  easily  passible  as  after  some  reflex 
irritations  ;  therefore  the  greater  reflex. 

After  many  experiments  on  animals,  both  before  and 
after  birth,  by  Mr.  Soltman  and  myself,  we  found  that 
reflex   motions   increased   constantly,  until  at  a   period 


372  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

which  might  be  called  the  beginning  of  reflex  reaction. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  while  the  central  traces, 
by  constant  use,  become  more  and  more  passible,  and 
quickened  in  motion,  the  peripheral  ends  of  the  nerves 
of  the  skin  become,  by  inevitable  contact  of  cold  and 
wet,  less  sensitive. 

The  first  apprehension  of  touch.  From  the  sensitive- 
ness of  touch  to  the  apprehension  of  touch  is  a  long 
step.  The  simple  conception  of  touch  has  to  be  con- 
nected with  successive  conception  to  produce  the  con- 
ception of  time.  It  is  supplemented  by  the  conception 
of  space,  and  finally,  with  that  of  causal  connection 
between  two  or  more  impressions  in  regard  to  time 
and  space,  forming  the  conscious  conception  of  bodily 
contact. 

If  the  new-born  child  is  softly  beaten,  he  has  a  con- 
ception of  it,  because  he  cries  ;  but  he  does  not  know 
anything  of  the  place,  nor  of  the  cause.  If  beaten  once 
more,  a  possibility  of  a  remembrance  or  of  a  difference 
in  time  is  offered.  In  case  the  beating  is  applied  at  dif- 
ferent places  on  the  skin,  the  child  becomes  conscious 
of  a  difference  in  space,  besides  a  conception  of  pain, 
because  it  is  different  nerve  fibers  which  are  irritated. 
If  the  beating  is  interrupted  by  painless  pauses,  then 
in  time  the  hand  will  be  recognized  as  the  cause  of 
pain,  and  very  likely  be   pushed  back. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  contact  gives  pleasure,  it 
will  be  desired.     In  both  cases,  movements  have  to  be 


THE   SENSE   OF  TOUCH.  373 

performed,  these  leading  again  to  new  impressions  and 
conceptions. 

Undoubtedly,  the  first  successful  attempt  at  grasping 
is  very  interesting  to  the  child,  in  experiencing  touch 
at  the  ends  of  his  fingers.  If  not,  he  would  hardly 
look  so  attentively  at  his  own  fingers.  This  became 
still  more  so,  when,  on  the  twenty-third  week,  in  strik- 
ing about,  one  hand  accidentally  grasped  the  other. 

There  is  the  clear  distinction  between  the  reciprocal 
touch  of  the  two  surfaces  of  his  own  body  and  that  of 
a  foreign  body,  which  is  a  great  step  forward  in  the 
recognition  of  the  Ego.  The  first  timely  connection  in 
the  sensibility  of  touch  in  another  body  is  most  likely 
that  which  is  gained  in  sucking.  By  placing  the  nip- 
ple between  the  lips  an  impression  is  made  of  some- 
thing wet  in  his  mouth,  connected  with  the  sweet  taste. 

This  is  one  of  the  first  experiences  the  young  babe 
receives  :  that  in  consequence  of  a  certain  touch  of  the 
lips,  a  still  more  agreeable  sensation  is  felt  in  the 
mouth ;  therefore  the  child  desires  the  touch  of  the 
lips,  and  any  similar  soft  impression   is  welcome. 

This  is  illustrated  clearly  by  the  baby's  habit  of  suck- 
ing his  own  fingers,  and  it  makes  the  acquaintance  of 
any  new  object  by  at  once  putting  it  in  his  mouth. 
This  shows  how  much  easier  and  stronger  the  timely 
succession  of  the  same  impression  is  perceived  than  the 
occasional  and  casual  one.  The  invisibility  of  the  milk 
may  support  this  physiological   mistake,   and   it  would 


374  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

be  of  great  value  to  find  if  the  nursling  who  receives 
the  milk  only  from  the  breast,  continues  also  the  use- 
less sucking,  as  compared  with  one  who  receives  the 
milk  from  the  transparent  bottle. 

The  habit  of  useless  sucking  seems  so  much  more  sur- 
prising as  the  nursling  shows  quite  early  a  kind  of  reason- 
ing activity  by  opening  the  eyes  quite  wide  on  seeing  the 
mother's  breast. 

THE   SENSIBILITY  TO   TEMPERATURE. 

There  are  very  few  observations  on  the  differences 
in  temperature.  It  is  an  open  question  whether  the 
sudden  cooling  off  of  the  child  at  birth,  which  may  vary 
several  degrees,  produces  at  once  a  sensation  of  cold  in 
the  full  birth  as  well  as  the  child  of  premature  birth,  even 
if  there  is  a  trembling  or  shivering.  Omitting  some 
scientific  remarks  on  this  point,  Prof.  Preyer  continues 
with  the  observation  that  the  first  bath  produced  a  pleas- 
ant sensation  if  a  comfortable  warmth  was  given.  It  is 
comfortable  in  contrast  to  the  process  of  cooling  just  ex- 
perienced, which  can  be  clearly  seen  in  the  facial  expres- 
sion of  the  new-born  child,  who  but  a  few  moments  be- 
fore was  found  wet,  trembling,  and  crying. 

At  the  seventh  day  I  perceived  a  joyous  expression, 
with  wide-open  eyes.  No  other  sensuous  impression  is 
able  to  produce,  at  this  early  period,  a  similar  expres- 
sion of  contentment.  The  conception  of  warmth  and 
cold,  both  of  which  are  not  felt  before  nor  immediately 


THE    SENSIBILITY   TO   TEMPERATURE.  375 

after  birth,  becomes  distinctly  conceived  after  the  first 
bath.  It  seems  also  that  the  bathing  of  new-born  chil- 
dren in  ice-cold  water  is  always  connected  with  an 
expression  of  displeasure. 

About  the  local  sensation  of  warmth  and  cold,  we  have 
very  little  experience.  Ganzmer  tried  the  different  parts 
of  the  body  on  twenty  children  with  a  cold  piece  of  iron, 
meeting  each  time  with  vivid  reflex  motions. 

The  sensibility  of  young  infants  to  any  contact  with 
cold  water  is  known  by  their  crying  and  restlessness ; 
and  this  disinclination  to  the  local  withdrawal  of  warmth 
remains  throughout  the  first  years  of  life,  until  in  later 
years  the  experience  that  cold  water  is  refreshing  over- 
comes the  first  impressions. 

How  sensitive  children  in  general  are  in  regard  to  heat 
and  cold  was  shown  in  the  experiment  of  lessening  grad- 
ually the  temperature  of  my  child's  bath.  It  could  be 
lessened  to  32*°  C.  without  diminishing  the  pleasure  of 
the  boy.  But  if  it  was  lessened  to  31^°  C.  and  less, 
the  child  cried  uninterruptedly  until  the  water  was  made 
warmer. 

At  two  and  one  half  years  he  laughed  and  enjoyed 
the  temperature  of  the  room  in  the  bath,  which  before 
had  made  him  cry ;  and  at  four  years  he  refused  to  take 
a  warm  bath  at  36°  C.  At  seven  months  he  looked  pale 
in  a  bath  at  34°  or  35°  C,  but  in  one  or  two  minutes  he 
regained  his  usual  color.  This  refers  not  to  a  direct  con- 
traction of  the  capillaries  of  the  skin  by  the  abstraction 


376  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

of  heat,  but  to  an  effect  on  the  reflective  nerves,  as  it  was 
especially  the  face  which  became  pale,  but  at  two  years 
this  ceased. 

The  sensibility  of  the  skin  of  the  mouth,  the  tongue, 
and  the  lips  in  the  young  babe,  in  regard  to  cold  and 
warmth,  is  also  very  striking.  The  bottle  is  very  often 
refused,  with  violent  crying,  when  the  milk  is  only 
a  little  above  or  below  the  temperature  of  the  blood. 
Therefore  all  liquids  used  to  test  the  sense  of  taste  must 
have  exactly  37°  C.  But  children  can  easily  be  educated 
to  take  cooler  drinks,  if  they  be  offered  when  the  child 
is  hungry. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   SENSE    OF    TASTE. 

The  child  of  mature  as  well  as  that  of  premature  birth, 
from  one  to  two  months,  reacts  by  mimic  reflex  motions, 
like  an  adult,  when,  with  the  aid  of  a  brush,  different  arti- 
cles are  applied  to  his  mouth. 

Some  grimaces  were  observed  on  two  children  touched 
with  some  substances,  while  the  same  placed  in  the 
middle  of  the  tongue  showed  no  effect  until  the  melting 
reached  the  more  sensitive  portion  of  the  border  of  the 
tongue. 

It  is,  therefore,  but  the  taste,  and  no  other  associated 
effect,  which  produces  a  "  sour  face  V  of  the  child. 

I  saw  my  child,  on  the  first  day  of  his  life,  lick  the 
sugar  which  was  put  on  the  nipple  of  his  mother's  breast, 
while  he  did  not  touch  anything  else  than  the  sweet. 

On  the  second  day  he  licked  the  milk  as  well  as  the 
sugar  with  a  very  satisfied  expression.  Later,  when  pre- 
sented with  salt  and  other  mixed  substances,  I  observed 
his  astonishment. 

At  one  and  one  half  years  old,  even  to  his  fourth  year, 
he  closed  his  eyes,  covered  his  face,  and  shook  his  whole 
body  in  the  most  comical  manner,  when  presented  with  a 


378  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

new  dish,  even  when  he  liked  it.  And  one  could  very 
easily  make  him  believe  that  something  tasted  good, 
even  when  he  had  just  rejected  it.  Prof.  Preyer  fin- 
ishes this  subject  with  the  conclusion  that  the  capacity 
of  tasting  is  found  in  every  child,  but  different  indi- 
viduals show  different  powers  of  conception  and  ex- 
pression. 

COMPARISON  OP  THE  IMPRESSIONS  OP  TASTE. 

The  sense  of  taste  seems  the  first  and  best  adapted 
to  receive  and  connect  impressions.  The  taste  of  the 
milk  he  was  accustomed  to  was  strongly  fixed,  so  that, 
when  quite  young,  he  was  able  to  distinguish  between 
his  usual  and  other  milk.  The  opinion  of  some  ob- 
servers, that  it  needs  a  month  before  a  child  is  able 
to  refuse  medicine  on  account  of  the  taste,  is  false.  I 
found  my  child  refusing  milk  and  sugar  on  the  fourth 
day  which  he  had  accepted  on  the  second  day,  very 
likely  comparing  the  sweetness  with  the  mother's  milk. 
But  only  a  few  grains  of  sugar  put  on  the  nipple  of  his 
bottle  were  enough  to  make  it  acceptable. 

Possibly,  in  sweetening  bad  tasting  medicine,  the  child 
takes  it  for  the  sake  of  the  sweetness.  Every  new 
effect  of  taste  acts  in  three  directions,  showing  astonish- 
ment, a  desire  for  more,  or  detestation. 

Food  is  not  seldom  at  the  beginning  rejected,  then 
afterwards   desired.      This   depends   on    the    charm    of 


COMPARISON   OF   THE   IMPRESSIONS   OF   TASTE.         379 

novelty,  the  taste,  the  touch,  the  temperature,  and  the 
smell.     All  four  may  act  in  concert. 

But  where  the  child  has  only  to  decide  between  some- 
thing salt  and  sweet,  the  impression  is  quite  clear,  even 
when  it  is  only  a  few  weeks  old. 

How  far  the  child  is  able  to  distinguish  after  he  is 
weaned  may  be  seen  by  the  following  :  — 

When  one  hundred  and  fifty  days  old  my  child  would 
no  longer  take  his  mother's  milk.  Five  days  afterwards 
he  refused  the  breast  altogether,  on  account  of  the 
greater  sweetness  of  cowT's  milk  when  boiled  and  thinned 
with  water. 

At  the  end  of  the  twenty-third  week  a  nurse  was 
engaged  for  the  child,  whose  milk  he  took  with  delight. 
Thinned  cocoa,  milk,  beef-tea  with  the  yolk  of  an  egg, 
also  milk  with  egg,  were  all  much  liked. 

On  the  one  hundred  and  eighty-fifth  day  no  nurse 
was  used.  Boiled  cow's  milk,  one  part  water,  four  parts 
with  egg,  seemed  desirable.  Also  gruel  with  egg  was 
received,  then  afterwards  refused;  also  leguminose. 

In  the  eighth  month  the  child  received  almost  exclu- 
sively "Nestles  Kindermehl,"  which  he  liked  the  best. 
He  cried  aloud  with  pleasure,  to  express  his  satisfaction 
with  its  taste. 

Ninth  month.  The  child  partook  of  some  sugar  mixed 
with  a  raw  beaten  egg,  with  great  astonishment.  He 
liked  fresh  water,  and  sucked  with  pleasure  a  piece  of 
white  bread,  seemingly  for  the  sake  of  sucking. 


380  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

Eleventh  month.  He  took  some  weak  and  slightly 
salted  beef-tea  with  egg,  without  showing  pleasure,  and 
refused  cocoa  milk  without  sugar. 

Twelfth  month.  The  child  was  very  fastidious  about 
the  taste  of  his  meals,  and  refused  with  disgust  any 
farinaceous  substance,  except  his  kindermehl. 

Bitter  substances  were  strongly  refused.  The  idiosyn- 
crasy, by  refusing  to  eat  a  number  of  dishes,  extended 
into  the  fourth  and  fifth  years,  and  went  so  far  that 
even  on  seeing  some  peas  he  expressed  a  strong  aver- 
sion, which  was  followed  by  choking,  —  a  phenomenon 
met  in  many  children,  indicating  a  very  strongly  de- 
veloped power  of  discrimination  between  differences  of 
taste  and  smell.  Much  as  it  seems  practically  opposed 
to  a  rational  method  of  education,  no  child  should  be 
compelled  to  take  nourishment  which  is  averse  to  him, 
and  may  be  followed  by  vomiting. 

The  refusal  of  small  children  to  certain  food  must  not 
be  attributed  to  naughtiness.  Does  not  the  new-born 
child  at  once  refuse  sour  milk?  And  at  the  to  him  criti- 
cal period  of  weaning,  is  he  or  the  nurse  to  blame  when 
he  refuses  the  indigestible  food  offered  him?  Very  often 
force  used  at  this  time  develops  a  lasting  distaste  for 
certain  dishes,  and,  what  is  worse,  a  lasting  obstinacy  and 
willfulness. 

By  leaving  the  taste  unsuppressed  at  the  beginning, 
by  constantly  protecting  him  against  taking  too  much,  he 
will  by  degrees  adjust  himself  to  the  family  food. 


COMPARISON   OF   THE   IMPRESSIONS   OF   TASTE.        381 

But  here  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  family  has 
already  reached  a  certain  indifference  towards  taste  and 
smell,  which  the  child  has  to  acquire  in  the  course  of 
years. 

The  touch,  as  a  reflex  sensation  for  sucking  by  hungry 
babies,  supersedes,  very  likely,  the  sensation  of  taste, 
and  offers  another  sign  by  which  to  recognize  the  pleas- 
antness of  taste  sensation.     It  likes  sugar,  not  the  acid, 

Preyer  then  refers  at  length  to  the  instinctive  discrim- 
ination of  taste  in  newly  born  animals,  and  says  :  — 

These  wonderful  capacities  can  only  be  based  on  an 
instinct  of  taste.  Further  experiments,  especially  on  new- 
born human  beings,  are  very  desirable,  to  ascertain  the 
successive  accretions  of  the  sensibility  in  discerning  dif- 
ferences, both  for  pleasant  and  unpleasant  differences  of 
taste,  and  the  characteristic  reflex  motions,  caused  by 
peculiar  tastes,  all  of  which  must  become  the  study 
of  the  mothers. 

Pure  chemical  substances,  without  smell  or  a  pro- 
nounced taste,  have  to  be  used  in  moderate  quantities  for 
such  experiments.  The  best,  when  dissolved  in  luke- 
warm water,  are  sweet  glycerine  sugar,  and  milk  and 
sugar;  for  salt,  common  salt;  for  sour  lemon,  acid  and 
milk  acid ;  for  alkali,  soda ;  for  bitter,  quinine. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    SENSE    OF   SMELL. 

The  observations  on  the  sense  of  smell  refer  first  to 
the  proof  of  its  existence  in  the  new-born  human  being, 
and  afterwards  to  the  differences  of  the  impressions  of  the 
sense  of  smell  in  the  nursling,  connected  with  some  notes 
on  the  sense  of  smell  in  new-born  animals.  On  the  first 
day  the  child  can  be  induced  to  mimic  motions  by  strong 
smelling  substances.  Kussmaul  ascertained  that  when 
the  odor  of  asafoetida  or  of  coal  oil  was  communicated 
to  the  nose  of  a  sleeping  new-born  babe,  it  would  close 
the  eyelids  tight,  wrinkle  the  face,  and  become  restless 
and  awaken. 

Leutzner  claims  that  healthy  children  begin  to  cry 
when  exposed  to  strong  unpleasant  odors  placed  on  their 
lips.  Prof.  Preyer  says  these  experiments  were  not  ex- 
clusively directed  to  their  sense  of  smell.  The  proof  of 
the  existence  of  the  sense  of  smell  in  the  new-born  babe 
would  have  been  explained  by  a  mother's  consenting  to 
wet  one  of  her  breasts  or  the  sucking  bottles  with  an 
unpleasant  smelling  but  not  tasting  substance;  for  in- 
stance, kerosene  oil,  eait~de-cologne,  spirit  of  wine,  etc. 
If  the  child  refused  to  suck  from  one  of  these  sources  of 


THE   SENSE   OF  SMELL.  383 

milk,  we  might  be  sure  he  possessed  the  sense  of  smell.  A 
little  girl  eighteen  hours  old  refused  the  breast  decidedly, 
on  the  nipple  of  which  was  placed  a  drop  of  petroleum  or 
oil  of  amber.  It  would  be  very  useful  to  repeat  such  ex- 
periments, as  the  observation  of  a  nursling  who  refused 
the  mother's  breast  on  account  of  smell  was  not  a  new- 
born babe.  The  fact  that  some  larger  babies,  after 
having  tasted  their  mothers'  milk,  refuse  to  take  any- 
thing else,  in  spite  of  hunger  and  thirst,  is  not  a  proof, 
because  it  is  not  exclusively  founded  on  a  sense  of  smell. 
On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Kroner  has  fully  proved  that 
from  a  quarter  of  an  hour  after  birth  to  a  few  hours  or 
days  afterwards,  a  normally  developed  child  smells  by 
curling  up  its  nose,  wrinkling  up  its  face,  etc.  In  all 
such  experiments  with  the  sense  of  smell  of  infants,  it 
must  be  ascertained  that  the  nasal  passage  be  entirely 
free  to  the  air.  The  child  must  be  able  to  breathe  with  a 
closed  mouth. 

After  the  sense  of  smell  is  awakened,  it  serves  the 
child  greatly  in  the  choice  of  its  food.  Not,  as  some 
claim,  after  four  weeks,  or  after  two  months  old,  but 
from  the  first  day  the  sense  of  smell  is  active,  increasing 
from  day  to  day  the  intensity  of  the  child's  pleasure  or 
discomfort.  Some  children  a  few  weeks  old  refuse  the 
breast  of  the  nurse  on  account  of  the  unpleasant  odor, 
and  cry  when  the  breast  is  merely  brought  near  to 
them.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  children  born  blind 
very   soon  learn   to   smell   their  milk  or   mush.      And 


384  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

the  refusal  of  cow's  milk  instead  of  the  previously 
received  breast  milk  depends  more  on  the  smell  than 
on  the  taste,  as  children  often  refuse  the  milk  before 
tasting  it.  It  would  be  interesting  in  such  cases  to 
blind  the  eyes  to  prevent  the  sight  from  sharing  in  the 
result. 

The  blind-born  babe  undoubtedly  cultivates  the  sense 
of  smell  equally  strong  with  that  of  taste,  in  order  to 
regulate  his  food. 

Whether  the  babe  recognizes  his  mother's  breast  by 
the  smell,  as  the  animal  does,  is  not  certain.  It  seems 
that  without  seeing  or  touching  it,  the  child  would  be 
incapable  of  finding  it.  Also,  the  search  for  the  nipple, 
without  any  aid  from  the  sense  of  smell,  as  with  ani- 
mals, seems,  according  to  my  observations  in  lying-in 
hospitals,  questionable. 

That  children  move  violently  and  hastily  with  their 
whole  heads  around  the  breast,  eyes  wide  open,  and 
the  mouth  intermittently  so,  I  did  not  observe  in  my 
child  before  the  eighth  day. 

After  weaning,  the  sense  of  smell  is  the  least  used 
for  the  perception  of  his  surroundings.  Impressions  of 
smell  are  ordinarily  taken  for  those  of  taste.  The  fol- 
lowing notes  on  my  boy's  actions  will  show  how  late 
the  conception  of  smell  was  clearly  developed.  At  fif- 
teen months,  freshly  ground  coffee  and  eau-de-cologue 
did  not  make  any  impression  on  my  child,  though  he 
liked  the  latter  very  much  at  three  years  of  age.     They 


THE    SENSE    OF   SMELL.  385 

were  neither  desired  nor  rejected ;  if  placed  under  his 
nose,  his  mouth  closed. 

At  the  end  of  the  same  month,  eau-de-cologue  made 
the  child  laugh.  He  showed  similar  pleasure  in  regard 
to  the  other  senses.  At  sixteen  months  old,  the  smell 
of  the  oil  of  roses  made  no  impression ;  at  seventeen 
months,  the  capacity  to  discriminate  between  taste  and 
smell  was  still  doubtful,  because  every  time  I  attempted 
to  have  him  smell  an  object,  as  a  hyacinth  or  some  es- 
sence, he  opened  his  mouth,  and  often  took  the  flower 
into  his  mouth,  thereby  supposing  that  anything  smell- 
ing good  must  likewise  be  of  good  taste.  At  eighteen 
months,  the  child  placed  the  things  which  he  liked  to 
smell,  and  desired  to  smell  no  longer,  in  his  mouth, 
showing  that  discrimination  between  smell  and  taste 
existed. 

I  gave  the  child  a  rose,  saying,  "Please  smell";  he 
would  carry  it  with  closed  mouth  to  his  nose,  breathing 
in  the  fragrance  with  several  inhalations.  For  a  long 
time  the  word  "  smelling "  was  identified  with  the  word 
"blowing,"  because  the  nurse,  to  indicate  smelling,  imi- 
tated sneezing.  A  true  sniffling,  that  is,  an  inhalation 
of  air,  was  never  carried  out.  As  the  experiments  of 
smelling  in  general  are  not  customary,  and  the  little 
babe  often  smells  sour  himself,  and  has  very  little  op- 
portunity to  smell  anything  except  the  exhalations  of  his 
mother  or  nurse,  the  late  development  of  this  sense  is 
not  surprising. 


386  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

The  importance  of  this  function,  in  connection  with 
the  test  of  fresh  air,  food,  and  cleanliness,  is  unfortu- 
nately generally  undervalued. 

Many  adults  are  totally  ignorant  of  a  difference  be- 
tween the  smell  and  taste.  The  man  of  culture  grows 
up  without  any  instruction,  though  it  would  be  of  great 
value  to  develop  the  sense  of  smell  early,  and  get  a 
clear  expression  of  the  effect,  in  the  same  manner  as 
practiced  with  color  and  sound. 

THE  SENSE   OF   SMELL  IN  NEW-BORN  ANIMALS. 

Mr.  Spaulding  stated  that  in  placing  his  hand,  with 
which  he  had  just  petted  a  dog,  near  four  little  kittens, 
only  three  days  old,  and  still  blind,  they  hissed ;  showing 
the  finely  developed  sense  of  smell.  In  man,  the  instinc- 
tive smell  is  less  inherited,  as  it  plays  altogether  a  less 
important  psychogenetic  role  than  with  animals,  that 
depend  on  it.* 

*  The  savage  stands  in  this  respect  nearer  to  the  animal. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   EARLIEST    PERCEPTION    OF    COMFORT    AND    DIS- 
COMFORT, AND   THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  EMOTIONS. 

Prof.  Preyer  says :  M  The  physiological  conception 
of  the  condition  of  the  organs  and  emotions  is  so  little 
decided,  that  the  investigation  of  them  on  a  little  child 
seems  almost  seeking  too  far. 

"  I  therefore  limited  myself  to  a  small  number  of  sensa- 
tions and  emotions,  and  therewith  present  merely  frag- 
ments. It  seems  better  to  communicate  them  than  with- 
hold them,  if  they  should  only  serve  to  show  how  many 
problems  grow  out  of  the  facts. 

"  The  whole  mental  and  physical  condition  of  the  child 
depends  pre-eminently  on  his  emotions  of  pleasure  or 
pain.  I  refer,  in  general,  to  these  at  first ;  afterwards, 
especially  to  the  feeling  of  hunger  and  satisfaction,  and 
of  weariness.  Of  the  emotions  of  the  very  young  child, 
the  sensations  of  fear  and  astonishment  are  of  great 
importance." 

EMOTIONS  OF  PLEASURE  IN  GENERAL. 

In  the  first  three  months  of  the  child's  life  the  sensa- 
tions of  pleasure  are  not  manifold.     With  the  exception  of 


388  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

hunger  and  the  repeated  satisfaction  by  sucking,  and  the 
sweet  taste,  there  is  also  in  the  first  month,  dating  from 
the  first  day,  pleasure  in  its  first  bath.  Less  intense,  but 
constant,  is  the  pleasing  satisfaction  in  impressions  of 
light,  and  later  in  objects  slowly  moved  before  its  eyes. 

The  pleasure  in  these  impressions,  which  grows 
steadily,  finds  its  climax  in  the  freedom  from  outer 
bandages  of  clothing,  allowing  untrammeled  use  of  his 
limbs.  Acoustic  impressions  are  perceptible  in  the  child 
at  two  months  old.  Singing,  playing  on  the  piano,  and 
the  use  of  harmonious  sounds  in  quieting  discontent  of 
the  child,  produce  lively  demonstrations  of  pleasure. 
The  same  effect  is  reached  by  speech.  The  large  oval  of 
the  face  moving  before  his  eyes  —  speaking,  laughing,  and 
singing  —  quite  early  excites  the  attention  and  pleasure  of 
the  child,  by  its  peculiarity  and  difference  from  all  other 
objects,  though  human  beings  may  not  be  considered  capa- 
ble of  recognizing  the  mother  before  three  months  of  age. 

At  four  months,  the  grasping  after  everything  increases, 
becomes  distinct  in  the  fifth,  and  increases  greatly  in  the 
sixth  month.  The  loud  impressions  of  pleasure,  when 
carried  into  the  open  air,  may  be  referred  to  the  increase 
of  light  and  fresh  air,  more  than  to  the  sight  of  trees 
and  houses. 

Seventh  month.  Its  own  picture  seen  in  the  glass,  in 
one  case  at  least,  excited  pleasure.  Animals  and  watches 
excite  the  pleasure  of  the  child  more  at  this  age  than 
before.     A  new  sensation  of  pleasure,  with  a  shade  of 


EMOTIONS    OF   PLEASURE   IN   GENERAL.  389 

intelligence,  is  shown  by  the  attempt  of  the  child  to 
change  effects  by  its  own  activity ;  in  its  voice  by  crying 
out  in  different  ways,  and  making  its  first  baby  sounds, 
changing  its  first  play  motions ;  and  at  five  months,  the 
rumpling  of  sheets  of  paper  awakened  very  great  and 
lasting  pleasure.  The  tearing  of  newspapers  and  rum- 
pling them  up  into  little  balls  furnished  him  from  five 
months  to  three  years  of  age  an  immense  deal  of  pleasure. 
Similar  pleasure  he  derived  from  the  tearing  and  the  wear- 
ing of  a  glove  (from  the  fifth  month  to  the  fourth  year) , 
also  from  pulling  at  my  beard  ;  later,  the  continued  tink- 
ling of  a  bell  and  the  movements  of  his  own  body ;  the 
pushing  in  and  out,  or  cutting  with  scissors,  when  two 
years  of  age. 

Finally  came  the  power  of  imitation  and  ornamenta- 
tion, which  gave  life  and  form  to  the  pieces  of  wood, 
turning  leaves  into  delicate  dishes,  etc.  On  the  whole, 
it  seemed  clear  that  playfulness  was  more  the  result  of 
putting  aside  unpleasant  conditions,  than  of  creating  di- 
rectly pleasant  ones.  Hunger,  thirst,  wet,  cold,  when 
done  away  with,  excited  feelings  of  pleasure,  which  were 
stronger  or  weaker  as  the  subdued  lights,  slowly  mov- 
ing tassels,  lukewarm  bathing,  kindness  of  the  parents 
singing,  affected  the  mood  of  the  child. 

In  the  second  three  months,  some  entirely  new  and 
joyous  pictures  connected  themselves  with  the  first  suc- 
cessful graspings. 

The  voice  in   the  first   days  was  very  different  when 


390  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

pleasure  or  hunger  was  expressed ;  and  high  crowing 
sounds  were  signs  of  joy  observed  by  me  from  the 
fourth  month,  and  the  fourth  year  showed  very  little 
change  in  this  respect. 

Near  the  end  of  the  first  year,  the  child  enjoyed  an 
especial  acoustic  plan  of  grunting,  very  likely  produced 
by  the  vibration  of  the  uvula  with  closed  mouth,  ft  was 
produced  in  anticipating  pleasure. 

DISPLEASURE   IN   GENERAL. 

In  the  first  half-year,  feelings  of  discomfort  were 
greater  than  later.  Even  in  giving  the  greatest  care 
in  ventilation,  regulation  of  the  temperature  of  the  air 
and  the  bath,  in  controlling  influences  on  the  mother's 
milk,  and  in  having  the  most  pleasant  surroundings 
at  command,  it  was  almost  impossible  to  keep  the  baby 
in  perfect  health.  Even  the  birth  may  have  been  pain- 
ful to  the  child,  leaving  it  with  ailments,  and  the  num- 
ber of  children  who  have  painful  diseases  is  numerous. 

At  no  age  is  mortality  greater  than  in  the  first  year. 
This  disposition  to  sickness  in  the  helpless,  defenceless, 
and  inexperienced  nursling  must  bring  it  many  uncom- 
fortable hours,  as  only  a  healthy  organization  is  capable 
of  enjoying  untroubled  hajipiness. 

But  it  is  not  our  aim  to  refer  to  those  discomforts  con- 
nected with  sickness,  but  to  those  from  which  we  can 
free  even  the  most  healthy  or  poorest.      They  are  hun- 


DISPLEASURE   itf    GENERAL.  Z§1 

ger,  thirst,  uncomfortable  positions  in  lying  or  being 
held,  cold,  wet,  impure  air,  the  pains  of  teething,  un- 
pleasant dribbling,  sucking  objectionable  objects,  and 
later  the  refusal  of  desired  objects. 

It  is  utterly  wrong  to  imagine  the  child  unable  to 
feel  discomfort.  Those  who  are  capable  of  enjoying 
themselves  are  capable  of  suffering  in  the  same  degree. 
Continued  crying  is  the  most  telling  of  its  conditions. 
In  pain,  the  child  uttered  piercing  cries.  He  whined 
when  in  uncomfortable  positions,  cried  very  loud  and 
continuously  when  in  a  cold  bath,  strongly  and  with 
interruptions  when  hungry  and  expecting  to  be  satis- 
fied. 

Some  articulate  and  inarticulate  sounds  of  discomfort 
were  heard.  The  child  can  only  cry ;  and  at  the  begin- 
ning may  not  be  able  to  perceive  pain  fully,  as  new-born 
infants  resist  more  slowly  the  strongest  impressions. 

A  second  telling  sign  is  the  closing  and  pressing  of 
the  eyes,  not  often  met  in  adults.  In  the  first  year 
the  child  closed  his  eyes  regularly  when  crying.  At 
nine  months  old,  he  closed  his  eyes,  wrinkled  his  fore- 
head on  being  compelled  to  suffer;  for  instance,  being 
dressed,  or  when  a  finger  was  put  in  his  mouth.  The 
turning  of  its  head  was  perceived  from  the  first  to  the 
ninth  month  without  crying. 

But  the  most  sensitive  indicator  of  the  feelings  is 
the  mouth,  as  the  slightest  discomfort  was  at  once  ex- 
pressed by  the  drooping   of  the  corners    of  the    mouth. 


392  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

This  facial  change  grows  more  prominent  with  advancing 
age.  With  my  child,  the  action  began  in  the  eighteenth 
week. 

At  twenty-three  weeks,  when  spoken  to  harshly,  with 
a  severe  expression,  the  drooping  of  the  lips  preceded 
the  most  pitiful  crying,  accompanied  by  the  naso-labial 
fold,  but  was  changed  as  soon  as  I  looked  kindly  at 
him. 

Darwin  saw  the  drooping  of  the  corners  of  the  mouth 
as  early  as  the  sixth  week.  This  shows  a  difference 
in  children ;  but  from  the  third  month  every  unpleasant 
feeling  was  expressed  in  this  way. 

From  eight  months  old,  or  later,  the  child  added  to  his 
loud  crying  at  times  by  a  perfect,  square  opening  of 
his  mouth,  which  Darwin  recognized  as  the  height  of 
satisfaction. 

In  spite  of  these  signs,  it  was  especially  difficult  in 
the  first  year  to  comprehend  all  the  causes  of  crying 
and  discomfort. 

For  instance,  why  did  the  little  girl  of  four  months 
cry,  when  her  mother  approached  her  with  a  large  hat 
on  her  head  ?  And  why  did  she  smile  when  she  took 
the  hat  off?  Very  likely  fear  and  astonishment  were 
mixed,  as  they  are  with  animals.  I  had  an  excellent 
horse  which  knew  me  very  well,  but  began  to  tremble 
and  shy  once  when  I  knelt  down  to  shoot  a  bird.  Surely 
this  was  fear,  because  his  master  appeared  to  him 
changed.       The     young    child     cannot    understand    the 


DISPLEASURE   IN   GENERAL.  393 

change  of  a  personality  of  which  he  has  a  different 
picture  in  his  mind.  Children  who  were  accustomed 
to  kiss  hands,  turned  away  when  these  hands  were  in 
black  gloves,  or  cried  if  a  person  was  dressed  in  black. 
Cutting  some  figures  out  of  paper,  my  boy  twenty-seven 
months  old  would  cry  for  pity,  when  one  of  them  was 
injured  by  cutting  a  foot  or  an  arm  off.  The  same  was 
told  of  a  little  girl. 

If  the  nursling,  in  spite  of  being  rightly  fed,  warmed, 
and  cared  for  in  every  respect,  cries,  closing  its  eyelids 
tight,  and  dropping  the  corners  of  its  mouth,  and  cannot  be 
pacified  in  any  way,  we  must  seek  for  an  inner,  unknown 
cause.  Once,  in  a  similar  case,  I  let  my  boy  cry  for  about 
twenty  minutes,  until  he  went  to  sleep,  and  when  he 
awoke,  after  several  hours,  he  was  perfectly  contented. 
Sometimes  this  crying  is  the  result  of  bad  humor,  and 
sometimes  only  a  notion,  without  any  suffering.  With 
some  it  comes  from  sleepiness;  and  with  others,  from 
over-fatigue,  or,  after  nursing,  when  prevented  from 
sleep.  The  dull  glance  of  the  eye,  the  slow  movements, 
the  facial  expression  and  paleness,  are  symptoms  of  dis- 
turbed health,  as  seen  in  the  chimpanzee  and  ourang- 
outang.  The  drooping  of  the  corners  of  the  mouth  is, 
in  all  cases,  even  when  in  sleep,  the  surest  sign  of  an 
unhappy  condition  of  mind. 


394  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 


THE   PEELING   OF   HUNGER. 

Soon  after  birth  hunger  and  thirst  are  felt  by  the  child. 
They  are  to  be  recognized  by  the  child  taking  objects  into 
the  mouth  to  suck,  while  the  satisfied  nursling  never 
sucks.  Too  long  left  tuifed,  the  child  begins  to  cry  and 
becomes  restless;  this  disappears  during  the  first  days 
if  anything  is  put  into  his  mouth,  though  in  a  week  this 
experiment  no  longer  succeeds,  showing  the  child's  expe- 
rience. Another  expression  of  hunger  is  the  wide  open- 
ing of  the  eyes  when  brought  in  contact  with  the  breast 
before  taking  nourishment.  This  was  repeated  regularly 
in  the  first  weeks,  but  not  before  he  had  taken  the  breast 
several  times,  proving  it  to  be  the  result  of  experience. 
I  also  saw  the  hungry  baby  moving  his  head  (an  act 
peculiar  in  new-born  children),  even  when  the  stopper  of 
the  bottle  was  brought  near  his  lips ;  this  movement 
finally  ceased  at  one  to  two  months  old,  when  the  stopper 
was  repeatedly  taken  out  of  his  mouth  and  replaced  again, 
the  child  seemingly  becoming  aware  of  its  uselessness. 

Though  these  movements  disappeared  after  a  time,  the 
animal-like  greediness  for  food  is  increased.  At  six  or 
seven  months  old  the  eyes  were  wide  open,  observing 
the  continued  decrease  of  the  milk  in  the  bottle  ;  and  at 
six  months  he  turned  his  head  energetically  toward  the 
bottle,  violently  crying  when  it  was  token  from  the  room. 

At  eight  months  one  could  divert  the  attention  of  the 
child   from   taking    his    food,  by  noises    or    movements, 


the  Feeling  of  hunger.  395 

hunger  not  merely  conquering  all  other  feelings,  owing  to 
the  larger  quantity  of  food  the  child  was  able  to  take. 
The  smaller  the  stomach,  the  oftencr  it  was  empty  ;  the 
larger  it  grew,  the  more  it  contained. 

The  stomach  of  a  new-born  child  contains  from  35  to 
43  cubic  centimeters  ;  after  two  weeks,  153  to  160  ;  after 
two  years,  740  cubic  centimeters,  though  there  are  indi- 
vidual differences.  For  this  reason,  the  intervals  between 
meals  are  extended,  leaving  time  to  direct  his  attention 
to  other  things,  and  the  less  he  sleeps  the  more  slowly  he 
consumes  his  nourishment. 

In  the  tenth  week  he  awoke  and  was  hungry  three 
times  from  8  p.  m.  to  6  a.  m.  In  the  thirteenth  wTeek 
the  intervals  lasted  in  daytime  three  to  four  hours, 
instead  of  two  hours,  as  in  the  beginning  of  life.  At  the 
eighteenth  week,  and  even  before,  ten  and  eleven  hours 
were  spent  in  uninterrupted  sleep  and  without  food. 
There  exists,  of  course,  many  individual  differences. 

If  people  occupy  themselves  too  much  with  the  child, 
thereby  affecting  his  senses,  or  if  his  attention  is  too 
active,  the  child  will  express  hunger  by  crying,  even 
when  playing.  This  often  makes  crying  from  hunger 
with  crying  from  discontent  a  miscomprehension.  I  no- 
ticed, after  the  sixth  w^eek,  my  child  made,  wrhen  hungry, 
a  peculiar  gurgling  sound, — as  when  his  food  was  held 
before  him,  but  kept  back  on  account  of  being  too  hot. 
It  is  impossible  to  believe  that,  in  spite  of  the  strong 
desire    for   food,    the    child    wished   to   get   it   by   inde- 


396  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

pendent  movements.  I  observed  a  child  that  refused 
decidedly  to  take  the  left  breast  on  the  fourth  to  the 
sixth  day,  though  it  had  been  without  food  for  seven 
hours,  because,  though  the  milk  was  equally  good  milk, 
the  breast  was  less  comfortable  to  reach.  His  hunger 
was  great ;  but  as  his  experience  in  taking  the  left  breast 
had  been  unsatisfactory  compared  with  the  right  side, 
he  refused  it.  That  this  could  be  already  conceived  on 
the  fourth  day  of  life  was  very  remarkable ;  also  his  per- 
sistence, in  spite  of  all  possible  efforts. 

THE    FEELING   OF   SATISFACTION. 

The  reverse  of  the  expressions  of  hunger  are  those 
of  satisfaction.  The  same  food  which  was  accepted  and 
craved,  was  despised  when  hunger  was  gone.  The  sat- 
isfied child  literally  rejects  the  breast  and  the  bottle. 
At  seven  months,  I  saw  the  mouth-piece  of  the  bottle 
rejected  with  disgust,  and  the  head  emphatically  turned 
to  the  other  side. 

On  the  tenth  day  and  later,  I  observed  after  his  meal 
some  smiling  opening  of  the  eyes,  and  the  production 
of  articulate  sounds,  each  one  telling  of  satisfaction  and 
comfort.  But  I  doubt  whether  the  child  feels  any  high 
degree  of  disgust  as  regards  want  of  cleanliness,  or  from 
bad  odor. 


THE   FEELING   OF   FATIGUE.  397 

THE   FEELING   OF  FATIGUE. 

Notwithstanding  his  general  sleepiness,  it  seems  doubt- 
ful if  a  child  can  be  much  fatigued,  since  he  makes  very 
few  efforts.  But  a  closer  insight  will  show  that  imme- 
diately after  birth,  causes  of  fatigue  are  experienced, 
and  thus  physiological  sleepiness  is  a  necessary  result. 

To  be  awake,  a  certain  excitement  of  the  sensory  nerves 
is  absolutely  required.  The  less  excitement,  as  before 
birth,  the  sounder  and  more  prolonged  the  sleep.  After 
birth,  the  increase  of  nervous  activity  —  for  instance,  the 
simple  opening  and  closing  of  the  eyes,  and  the  activ- 
ity of  the  skin  —  interrupts  sleep.  The  longer  the  inter- 
ruption lasts,  the  greater  is  the  consumption  of  forces 
of  the  central  and  peripheral  parts  of  the  sensuous  organs 
and  of  the  muscles,  by  oft-repeated  and  strong  contrac- 
tions, which  do  not  take  place  in  sleep.  This  con- 
sumption of  active  force  destroys  the  power  of  keeping 
awake,  in  having  abstracted  from  the  blood  the  needed 
oxygen. 

The  muscular  contraction  exerted  by  the  crying  and 
nursing  child  creates  a  need  of  sleep.  The  cry  of  the 
hungry  child  is  a  sign  of  being  awake,  which  quickly 
turns  into  sleep,  sometimes  before  being  fed.  Insuf- 
ficient nourishment  in  the  breast  very  often  leads  to  sleep 
before  hunger  is  satisfied. 

The  fatigue  of  the  senses  also  produces  sleep.  At 
two  or  three  weeks  old,  the  attention  directed  to  some- 


398  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

thing  besides  nourishment  —  for  instance,  changes  of  sur- 
roundings, effects  of  sounds  and  light — makes  the  child 
sleep,  especially  if  he  becomes  a  plaything  for  the  family. 
The  hearing  of  the  piano  gave  my  boy  at  eight  weeks 
old  a  six  hours'  uninterrupted  sleep ;  no  sleep  had  ever 
lasted  so  long  before. 

Prof.  Preyer  says  that  in  addition  to  the  consumption 
of  oxygen  and  the  moderate  energy  of  the  breathing 
apparatus  with  the  small  amount  of  blood,  there  must  be 
a  special  cause  to  promote  the  sleepy  condition  of  chil- 
dren, who  sleep  normally  during  the  greater  part  of  their 
lives,  until  they  are  two  years  old. 

He  also  says  that  the  milk  and  its  whey  easily  send  to 
sleep  babes  and  adults,  and  that  mothers'  milk  contains 
these  elements  ;  and  finally,  that  the  process  of  digestion 
concentrating  the  blood  in  the  digestive  organs  probably 
consumes  the  quantity  of  blood  which  would  be  necessary 
for  wakefulness. 

With  this  hypothesis  corresponds  the  general  experi- 
ence that  the  first  three  months,  the  duration  of  sleep 
between  two  meals  is  a  great  deal  shorter  than  in  the  fol- 
lowing three  months.  This  depends  on  the  size  of  the 
stomach.  I  found  the  sleep  of  the  nursling  so  much 
more  sound  and  extended,  the  more  concentrated  the 
milk  became.  Plenty  and  good  milk  of  the  mother 
gives  a  sounder  and  longer  sleep  than  the  diluted  milk 
of  the  cow,  or  the  scanty  milk  of  the  wet-nurse.  But 
even    under    the    best  conditions,    the   first   week's   du- 


THE   FEELING   OF   FATIGUE.  399 

ration  of  sleep  is  shorter*  and  awakening  more  frequent 
than  later.  The  frequent  awakening  results,  besides 
from  hunger,  from  the  greater  uncleanliness  produced 
by  the  wet-nurse  and  skin  irritation. 

Preyer  then  refers  to  the  notes  he  made  on  the  de- 
cline of  sleep  observed  in  his  boy  from  the  first  day 
to  the  end  of  three  years.  The  first  month  uninter- 
rupted sleep  did  not  last  longer  than  two  hours ;  out 
of  twenty-four  hours,  at  least  sixteen  were  spent  in 
sleep. 

The  second  month,  sleep  lasted  three  hours,  some- 
times even  five  and  six  hours. 

The  third  month,  the  sleep  lasted  sometimes  five 
hours. 

The  fourth  month,  the  sleep  lasts  five  and  six  hours, 
once  even  nine  hours,  the  interval  for  nourishment  three 
or  four  hours,  against  two  hours  previously. 

The  sixth  month,  six  and  eight  hours'  sleep  is  not 
seldom. 

In  the  eighth  month,  sleepless  nights  on  account  of 
teething. 

In  the  thirteenth  month,  fourteen  hours'  sleep  daily, 
in  several  intervals. 

In  the  seventeenth  month,  he  slept  through  ten  hours 
without  interruption. 

In  the  twentieth  month,  the  sleeping  during  the  day 
was  reduced  to  two  hours. 

From   the   thirty-seventh   month   on,  the  sleep  lasted 


400  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

regularly  eleven   and   twelve   hours,  and   no   sleep   was 
needed  in  the  daytime. 

From  the  fourth  year,  the  time  of  wakefulness  pre- 
cedes that  of  sleep.  Fatigue  does  not  immediately  pro- 
duce sleepiness  and  sleep.  This  depends  on  the  mani- 
foldness  of  nourishment,  but  chiefly  on  the  extended 
capacity  of  the  breathing  apparatus,  the  blood,  the  mus- 
cles,  and  the  ganglion  cells. 

So  the  need  of  sleep  is  partly  due  to  the  greater 
variety  of  food. 

I  consider  it  of  great  importance  not  to  interrupt  the 
sleep  of  the  child.  Sometimes  the  awakening  may  lead 
to  fright,  trembling,  and  convulsions,  even  in  a  healthy 
child.  Any  emotions  of  fright  are  an  injury,  and  any 
threatening  words,  as,  "  The  black  man  will  be  after 
you/"  or  an  unexpected  catching  or  throwing  something 
at  the  child,  is  dangerous.  Older  children  and  some- 
times nurses  will  play  these  tricks.  They  lead  to  fear, 
as  do  the  telling  exciting  stories  and  silly  fairy  tales, 
which  develop  a  sickly  sensitiveness. 

It  depends  entirely  on  the  treatment,  at  what  period 
the  child  expresses  fear.  But  there  exists  also  inherited 
fear,  which  is  demonstrated  as  soon  as  the  first  occasion 
offers.  Why  is  it,  for  instance,  that  many  children  fear 
dogs,  pigs,  and  cats,  before  they  know  anything  of  their 
qualities?  One  little  girl  cried  at  fourteen  weeks  for 
fear  of  a  cat.     Some  children  cry  on  hearing  thunder. 

It   is   a   question   in   how   far   conception   of  hunger, 


THE    FEELING   OF   FATIGUE.  401 

remembrance  of  pains  after  a  fall,  and  unpleasant  feel- 
ing occasioned  by  noise,  are  motives  to  express  fear.  I 
noticed  that  my  child  at  two  years  old  cried  very  bitterly 
when  a  heavy  piece  of  furniture  was  moved.  Such  facts 
are  altogether  excluded  from  the  expression  of  fear  in 
animals. 

Prof.  Preyer  refers  at  length  to  the  effects  produced 
on  young  chickens  and  the  mother  hen,  by  letting  a 
hawk  loose.  They  all  showed  the  usual  fear.  A  pigeon 
which  he  let  fly  over  thirty-three  young  chickens  did 
not  affect  them.  At  the  same  time,  a  hen  that  made  a 
great  noise  did  not  disturb  them.  This  proves  that  the 
enemy  must  have  been  known  by  inherited  memory. 
Fear  and  courage  are  differently  divided  among  animals 
of  the  same  kind. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  child  who  shows  fear  before 
he  is  aware  of  any  danger,  and  before  he  can  have  been 
influenced  by  mother  or  nurse. 

It  is  wrong  to  say  that  a  child  kept  free  from  fear 
does  not  know  fear.  The  courage  as  well  as  the  fear  of 
the  mother  has  considerable  influence  on  the  child,  as 
courageous  mothers  have  courageous  children  and  vice 
versa,  but  there  are  so  many  exceptions  that  we  are 
obliged  to  look  back  to  inherited  qualities. 

Champnay  observed  that  his  boy,  nine  months  old, 
showed  the  first  sign  of  fear  by  crying  bitterly,  and 
directing  his  wide-open  eyes  to  one  corner  of  the  room 
whence  he  perceived  an  unusual  sound. 


402  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

One  month  after,  a  toy  was  given  him  which  made  a 
squeaking  noise ;  he  cried  at  once  and  repeatedly  until 
he  became  acquainted  with  the  toy,  and  learned  to  play 
with  it  by  himself. 

My  boy,  though  not  of  an  especially  fearful  nature,  as 
proved  by  his  rompings  with  older  children,  when  by 
himself  showed  fear  of  machines  and  little  animals. 
Surely  this  was   not  from  experience. 

At  nine  months  old,  I  observed  the  first  loud  weeping, 
and  turning  away  from  fear,  when  a  little  dog  barked 
at  the  nurse  who  held  my  boy  in  her  arms.  The  same 
was  repeated  when  seventeen  months  old.  At  the 
thirtieth  month  the  fear  of  a  dog  was  surprising,  as  he 
had  never  been  bitten  by  a  dog,  and  as  far  as  could 
be  learned  had  never  seen  a  dog  bite. 

At  thirty-three  months,  this  loud  crying  was  repeated 
when  even  a  very  small  pug  dog  came  near  him.  After 
this,  this  fear  was  overcome,  and  I  once  saw  him  take 
an  apple  from  the  mouth  of  a  dog. 

In  order  to  give  the  child  of  two  and  one  half  years  a 
special  pleasure,  he  was  shown  a  number  of  little  pigs. 
Even  the  first  sight  of  them  made  him  very  nervous. 
But  when  the  little  things  began  to  suck,  the  mother 
lay  down  quietly,  at  which  my  boy  began  to  cry  aloud, 
to  hold  my  arm,  and  to  turn  away  in  fear;  the  child 
thought  the  little  pigs  were  biting  their  mother.  His 
fear  was  still  more  surprising,  as  the  pigs  were  enclosed 
by  a  high  wall. 


THE   FEELING    OF   FATIGUE.  403 

At  four  and  five  years  of  age  this  fear  was  so  great 
that  he  cried  almost  all  night,  imagining  that  the  pig  was 
bitten.     He  saw  the  animals  in  the  room,  and  even  when 
it  was  lighted  up  he  could  not  be  quieted.     Preyer  says 
"  that  if  children  cry  before  sleeping,  thinking  that  they 
are  bitten  by  a  dog,  any  sudden  shock  of  their  arms  or 
legs   makes    them   believe   the   animal   had    been    really 
there.     But  if  the  quietly  sleeping  child  cries  out,  r  Go 
away,  pig,'  without  awaking,  it  seems  probable  that  the 
child   is    dreaming.     A   little   girl   feared  a    dove  when 
eleven  months  old,   and  not   until    fourteen  months  old 
could  the  fear  be  overcome.     The  fear  of  black-dressed 
persons   of  a   deep   voice,   of  masks,  existed   from  the 
seventh  to  the  twenty-fourth  month ;  while  the  nursling 
of  three  months  does  not  show  any  fear.     A  great  differ- 
ence exists  between  fear  of  punishment  and  natural  fear. 
A  disobedient    child,   acting   for    the  first   time    against 
well-known  rules,  neither  cries  nor  trembles ;    does  not 
cling  to  persons,  does  not  squat  down ;  but  keeps  away. 
Though  the  fear  of  punishment  may  descend  from   gen- 
eration to  generation,  it  seems  to  be  a  new  acquirement 
in   every  child.     The   fearlessness  with  which  my  child 
moved  in  any  dark  room  I  explained  from  the  fact  that 
it  never  had  been  put  in  a  dark  room.     How  the  symp- 
tom  of    fear,    f  the    trembling,'    is    developed,    remains 
unexplained.      Darwin    says:    'Small    animals    do    not 
tremble ;    but   newly   born   babies    as    well   as    children 
tremble,  as  seen  by  a  baby  one  fourth  of  an  hour  after 


404  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

birth,  which  was  healthy,  and  for  which  a  proper  bath 
was  prepared  in  a  warm  room.  Animals  often  tremble 
in  warm  beds.  No  animal  knows  fear  of  the  human  hand 
at  the  beginning  of  its  life.  The  chicks  from  the  incu- 
bator act  very  differently  on  the  first  and  second  days  of 
their  life  than  they  do  later  on,  when  no  one  can  catch 
them.  Dogs  are  fearless  till  they  are  whipped.  How 
inherited  fear  assimilates  itself  with  experience,  is  at 
present  unknown." 

Remarkable  in  the  same  degree  was  the  fear  of  fall- 
ing down  on  first  attempting  to  walk ;  although  no 
one  remembered  having  seen  the  child  fall.  Fourteen 
months  old,  it  did  not  dare  to  walk  a  single  step  without 
support.  The  child  had  hurt  itself  frequently,  but  here 
it  cried  from  fear  without  having  been  hurt  by  falling. 
When  sixteen  months  old,  I  frightened  my  child,  when 
I  hoped  to  give  him  extra  pleasure,  by  producing  a  cer- 
tain sound  in  pressing  a  finger  hardly  around  the  upper 
edge  of  a  glass ;  while  the  clinking  together  of  two 
glasses  gave  him  much  pleasure. 

This  may  have  been  the  result  of  want  of  knowledge, 
but  the  same  child  laughed  at  lightning  and  thunder, 
eighteen  and  nineteen  months  old ;  and  at  thirty-five 
months  it  imitated  the  zigzag  of  the  lightning. 

Twenty-one  months  old,  my  child  showed  great  fear 
when  his  nurse  carried  him  near  the  sea-shore ;  he  began 
to  whine  (since  the  third  month  he  had  begun  to  weep), 
and  I  saw   him   clinging   to   her   with    both   his   hands, 


ASTONISHMENT.  405 

even  when  there  was  no  wind  or  tide,  and  hardly  any 
ripple  of  the  waves.  Why,  then,  this  fear  of  the  ocean, 
of  which  the  child  knows  nothing?  It  had  seen  and 
passed  the  channel  of  the  Eider  and  the  Rhine,  and  no 
fear  shown ;  neither  was  it  the  vastness  of  the  water,  as 
this  happened  near  by  the  shore.  Could  it  have  been 
aroused  by  some  noise  heard  before  ?  But  fear  of  man  by 
animals  is  unquestionably  the  result  of  man's  actions. 

Two  conditions  are  needed  to  become  fearless :  either 
ignorance  of  danger,  or  habit  of  it. 

ASTONISHMENT. 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  when  a  human  being  is  for  the 
first  time  astonished.  Reflex  motions  of  surprise  are 
not  identical  with  astonishment ;  even  the  concentra- 
tion of  attention  directed  by  the  child  to  its  fingers, 
the  unsuccessful  grasping  and  handling  of  objects  at  the 
fourth  and  fifth  month,  differs  from  astonishment.  At 
the  twenty-second  week  I  was  fully  able  to  differentiate 
astonishment.  The  child  was  in  a  railroad  car.  When 
I  returned,  after  a  short  absence,  hearing  my  voice  and 
seeing  my  face  suddenly,  for  more  than  a  minute  it 
looked  at  me  with  open  mouth,  hanging  jaw,  and  wide- 
open  motionless  eyes,  and  such  general  motionless  atti- 
tude as  is  typical  of  the  expression  of  astonishment. 
The  same  was  repeated  at  the  sixth  and  seventh  months, 
when  strangers  entered  the  room.  They  were  repeated 
at  the  eighth  and  ninth  month,  with  optical  or  acoustic 


406  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

impressions,  or  by  new  experiences  in  taste  and  smell. 
I  did  not  perceive  any  lifting  of  the  brows,  but  I  may 
have  overlooked  it ;  sometimes  the  sound  K  ah "  was 
heard,  moderate  impression  by  repeated  lifting  and  clos- 
ing of  the  eyes,  though  not  the  mouth.  The  second 
year  these  symptoms  of  astonishment  were  quite  sel- 
dom ;  the  whole  process  is  original,  neither  acquired 
by  imitation  nor  by  training.  The  utter  motionlessness, 
after  a  strong  and  sudden  impression,  is  similar  to  the 
catalepsy  in  animals,  which  lose  utter  control  of  the 
will  when  frightened.  (See  Preyer's  "The  Catalepsy 
of  Animals,"  Hypnotamus,  Jena,  1876.) 

It  is  not  seldom  we  see  animals  evidently  astonished ; 
for  instance,  a  dog  observing  the  flame  in  a  stove.  A 
certain  dog  was  afraid  of  thunder ;  and  once,  when  he 
heard  a  similar  noise  produced  by  putting  some  apples 
in  the  garret,  he  was  led  to  see  his  error,  and  sub- 
sequently paid  no  attention  to  thunder. 

Horses  shy  at  objects  by  the  roadside,  as  long  as  they 
are  uncertain  what  they  are.  In  all  cases,  with  animals 
as  with  children,  want  of  knowledge  creates  fear,  while 
the  appearance  of  novelty  creates  astonishment.  In  the 
first  case,  fear  disappeared  in  astonishment  on  learning 
the  cause ;  in  the  second,  fear  and  astonishment  stand 
equal ;  and  in  the  third  case,  there  is  first  astonishment, 
and  afterward  fear,  from  want  of  knowledge.  If  chil- 
dren were  compared  with  young  dogs,  in  many  respects 
they  would  be  found  to  act  in  a  similar  manner. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

GENEBAL   CONCLUSIONS. 

It  is  very  difficult  for  the  adult  man  to  put  himself  into 
the  condition  of  a  child  that  has  not  yet  had  any,  or  at 
least  no  distinct  experience  ;  for  after  the  first  periods  of 
growth,  every  experience  makes  undoubtedly  an  organic 
change  in  the  brain  ;  leaves  behind  it,  as  it  were,  a  sort 
of  scab  or  trace.  The  condition,  therefore,  of  the  senso- 
rium  of  the  new-born  child,  which  is  stamped  only  with 
the  marks  of  the  experiences  of  past  generations,  and 
quite  untouched  by  individual  impressions,  can  only  be 
conceived  of  by  the  help  of  the  imagination.  The  mental 
condition  of  every  man  is  so  much  the  product  of  the 
experiences  through  which  he  has  passed,  that  it  is  quite 
impossible  for  him  to  conceive  himself  apart  from  these. 

Still,  on  the  ground  of  the  facts  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
vious chapters,  I  believe  I  can  present  something  as 
probable.  And  first,  of  the  sensuous  activity,  we  say, 
that  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  probable  that  before 
birth  no  sensation  of  light,  no  phosphorescence,  occurs 
when  the  nerve  of  sight  or  the  retina  is  pressed  or  ex- 
tended, though  immediately  after  birth,  light  and  dark 
are  distinguished. 

Before  birth  there  is  surely  no  sense  of  smell,  but  the 


408  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

infant  in  the  first  hour  of  his  life  is  sensitive  to  strong 
odors.  Undoubtedly,  no  man  can  hear  before  his  birth, 
but  a  few  hours  afterwards  (with  animals  in  half  an 
hour)  reflex  motions  were  regularly  observed  by  me  in 
response  to  loud  sounds.  A  sense  of  taste,  in  the  proper 
significance  of  the  word,  the  child  can  hardly  have  before 
birth,  though  immediately  afterwards  he  acts  differently 
towards  very  bitter  and  very  sweet  substances.  There 
remains  only  the  sense  of  feeling,  which,  in  the  foetal 
condition,  is  probably  active.  Still,  the  unborn  man  is 
doubtless  not  in  a  condition  to  distinguish  warmth  from 
cold.  These  assuredly —  for  general  feelings  cannot  have 
been  developed — are  only  sensations  of  touch  which  the 
child  has  experienced  before  he  enters  the  world. 

The  following  examples  will  indicate  the  course  of  de- 
velopment of  the  separate  senses.  During  the  first  week 
of  its  life  the  human  child  cannot  see,  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word.  At  first,  he  distinguishes  only  light 
and  dark,  noticing  only  the  rapid  changes  from  one  to 
the  other,  as  when  a  large  portion  of  the  field  of  vision 
is  illuminated  or  shaded.  But  if  a  spot  of  light  is  very 
much  brighter  than  the  surrounding  space,  as  when  a 
candle  is  seen  in  a  dark  room,  then,  even  in  the  first 
week  of  the  child's  life,  the  spot,  though  small,  is  distin- 
guished as  light. 

The  distinction  of  colors  during  the  first  month  is 
very  imperfect,  and  is  perhaps  limited  to  the  recogni- 
tion  of    different   degrees   of  light.      Yellow   and   red. 


GENERAL   CONCLUSIONS.  409 

white,  gray  and  black,  are  first  sharply  distinguished, 
and  only  much  later  green  and  blue.  Probably,  the 
one-year-old  child  still  perceives  green  and  blue  almost 
as  gray ;  at  any  rate,  they  are  not  so  well  defined  as 
they  become  later.  Hardly  ever  will  a  child  before  the 
end  of  his  second  year  name  rightly  the  above-mentioned 
ground  colors ;  and  even  so  late  as  the  fourth  year 
these  are  named  and  recognized  much  more  readily  than 
the  compound  colors,  by  every  normal  child,  who  has 
not  had  a  special  education  of  the  color  sense.  Rapid 
winking  at  the  sudden  approach  of  an  object  before  the 
sight,  which  is  a  reflex  movement  analogous  to  the  act 
of  drawing  back,  is  absent  during  the  first  week,  and 
only  arises  after  an  unpleasant  sensation  has  been  ex- 
perienced on  account  of  the  sudden  change  in  the  field 
of  vision,  which  at  first  was  not  noticed.  Therefore,  the 
quick  opening  and  shutting  of  the  eyes  after  the  second 
month  are  an  indication  of  the  full  development  of  the 
power  of  sight,  that  is,  the  power  to  distinguish  rapid 
movements.  It  is  generally  true,  also,  that  the  eyes 
are  more  widel}r  opened  when  the  impressions  and  con- 
ditions are  agreeable  than  when  not.  The  movements 
of  the  eyes  in  the  new-born  child  are  not,  as  later,  co- 
ordinated and  associated,  but  at  first  extremely  irreg- 
ular. It  often  happens  that  in  the  many  unordered 
movements,  both  eyes  are  turned  simultaneously  to  the 
right  or  left,  up  or  down.  These  movements  of  the 
eyes,  which  are  at  first  rare  and  not  quite  symmetrical, 


410  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

become  soon  more  frequent  and  quite  symmetrical,  and 
supersede,  little  by  little,  as  sight  becomes  more  exact, 
the  irregular  movements.  The  power  to  fit  the  sight 
upon  a  neighboring  object,  and  observe  it  exactly,  de- 
velops slowly.  At  first,  the  child  stares  into  the  empty 
space.  Next,  it  turns  the  eyes  often  from  an  object  be- 
fore them,  as,  for  instance,  a  face,  to  some  bright  neigh- 
boring object,  for  instance,  the  flame  of  a  candle,  and 
stares  upon  it.  Afterwards  it  follows  a  slowly  moving 
object  with  the  eyes  and  head,  or  with  the  eyes  alone. 
At  length  the  child  no  longer  stares,  but  looks  and  finally 
observes.  Then  the  eye  begins  to  accommodate  itself  to 
distance.  Objects  at  different  distances  at  first  swim 
vaguely  before  it.  Now  it  observes  them  exactly  one 
after  the  other.  The  contraction  of  the  pupil  and  conver- 
gence of  the  line  of  sight  now  take  place  for  the  purpose 
of  beholding  a  near  object ;  though  at  first  such  contrac- 
tion, though  produced  by  the  increase  of  light,  had  no 
connection  with  the  act  of  observation  or  with,  conver- 
gence. Convergence  and  expansion  of  the  pupil  might 
even  take  place  together.  With  convergence  and  binocu- 
lar observation  of  a  slowly  moving  object,  the  child's 
expression  becomes  intelligent. 

Last  of  all  comes  to  the  child,  and  only  gradually,  the 
power  to  know  what  it  sees.  Transparency,  reflection, 
shadow,  are  for  years  a  riddle  to  the  child,  and  become 
intelligible  only  after  often-repeated  observations.  The 
thickness  of  the  object  seen  is  long   unrecognized,  and 


GENERAL   CONCLUSIONS.  411 

the  distinction  between  the  third  dimension  of  space  and 
the  other  two  (the  transverse  and  vertical)  is  for  a 
long  time  only  imperfectly  perceived.  The  failure  to 
grasp  an  object  proves  how  incomplete,  even  in  the 
second  and  third  years,  is  the  power  of  estimating  dis- 
tances. The  false  interpretations  made  of  impressions  of 
sight,  as,  for  instance,  of  steam  and  flame,  show  that  the 
child  only  slowly  learns  to  abstract.  Nevertheless,  the 
power  is  early  developed  of  recognizing  objects  and  per- 
sons as  such.  The  theory  of  space  perception  follows 
from  the  fact  that  man  is  not  provided  immediately 
after  birth  with  a  ready-formed  mechanism,  which  re- 
quires but  the  reception  of  light  to  put  into  regular 
activity;  but  the  light  itself  creates  that  mechanism. 
Therein  the  empiric  theory  is  right.  Only  the  capa- 
bility is  present  at  birth,  not  the  whole  apparatus.  This, 
however,  is  not  universally  true.  With  man  it  is  so. 
Many  animals  can  see  at  birth,  as  the  chicken  and  pig. 
Others  come  into  the  world  with  the  complete  mechanism 
for  the  perception  of  space,  needing  only  the  reception  of 
light  in  order  to  work  as  perfectly,  or  nearly  as  perfectly, 
as  in  the  full-grown  animal.  In  this  case  is  the  possi- 
bility of  a  greater  perfection  of  sight  in  the  individual 
at  the  first,  as  it  appears,  precluded.  The  chicken  just 
out  of  the  egg,  that  unfailingly  picks  up  the  kernel 
of  corn,  does  not  learn  to  see  any  better  by  repeated 
acts  of  sight.  Man  learns  day  by  day  to  see  better, 
and  even  in  late  life,  he  can,  by  much  practice,  perfect 


412  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

his  seeing  apparatus  far  beyond  the  ordinary  measure. 
The  mechanism  of  sight  is  with  him  still  plastic.  It  can 
still  be  much  differentiated,  because  at  the  moment  of 
birth  it  is  not  so  much  developed,  so  determinately 
formed,  as  with  the  bird. 

Hearing  with  the  just-born  child  is  so  imperfect  that 
he  must  be  called  deaf.  So  all  mammals  immediately 
after  birth  are  incapable  of  responding  to  impressions 
of  hearing.  The  causes  of  this  peculiarity  are  in  part  ex- 
ternal. Until  the  animal  breathes,  air  is  wanting  in  the 
middle  ear.  The  external  approach  is  not  penetrable, 
and  the  drum  stands-  too  obliquely. 

Even  after  the  passages  of  the  ear  are  open,  four 
days  or  more  after  birth,  there  is  no  distinction  of  sounds. 
Before  the  end  of  the  first  week,  however,  with  normal 
children,  the  characteristic  winking  is  observed  after 
any  sudden  loud  sound.  The  starting  of  the  child  after 
loud  sounds,  which  continues  many  months,  proves  the 
growth  of  power  of  hearing.  Though  in  the  first  month 
of  life,  single  hitherto  unperceived  sounds  come  to  be 
distinguished  as  different,  as,  for  instance,  deep  and  high 
voices,  z  and  s  sounds,  singing  and  speaking,  yet  three 
fourths  of  a  year  at  least  pass  before  the  child  recog- 
nizes the  tones  of  the  scale  ;  and  it  is  questionable  if  it 
can  even  learn  rightly  to  name  C,  D,  E,  F,  G,  A,  B, 
before  the  end  of  the  second  year.  Many  children, 
however,  learn  to  sing  before  they  can  speak,  and  all  can 
distinguish  the  sounds  and   harmonies  of  language  long 


GENERAL   CONCLUSIONS.  413 

before  they  themselves  can  produce  them.  The  strength 
of  impressions  of  sounds  can  be  recognized  by  an  atten- 
tive observer,  by  noting  the  greater  or  less  response  to 
them,  even  in  sleep.  The  child  already  perceives  the 
direction  of  sound  in  his  second  or  third  month. 

The  great  superiority  of  the  ear  over  the  eye  in  a 
psychogenetic  relation  appears  little  indeed  in  a  super- 
ficial observation  of  the  child  who  yet  does  not  speak. 
But  we  have  only  to  compare  a  child  born  blind  with 
one  born  deaf,  after  both  have  enjoyed  the  most  care- 
ful education  and  the  best  direction,  in  order  to  con- 
vince ourselves  that  after  the  first  year,  movements  of 
the  nerves  of  hearing  bear  much  more  upon  spiritual 
development  than  those  of  the  nerves  of  sight. 

Moreover,  many  mammals  and  birds  are  born  into 
the  world  with  a  much  more  developed,  a  much  more 
correctly  working  apparatus  for  hearing  than  man,  and 
which  for  surpasses  the  human  child  in  the  perception  of 
tones,  strength,  and  direction  of  sounds;  but  no  animal 
possesses  an  organ  of  hearing  capable  of  developing 
so  fine  a  power  of  differentiating  sounds.  None,  how- 
ever, respond  in  any  degree  so  precisely  as  the  child 
to  the  fine  differences  in  strength  and  kinds  of  sounds 
which  are  found  in  human  languages. 

In  the  first  hour  of  life  the  sensation  of  touch  is  much 
more  slight  than  later.  Sensation  of  temperature  does 
not  yet  exist.     Pain  is  felt  only  when  excessive. 

Of  all  the  senses,  taste  is  the  first  developed,  as  it  is  in 


414  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

animals.  Although  at  first  incapable  of  smell,  the  child 
is  soon  able  to  distinguish  between  the  different  kinds  of 
milk.  The  child's  feelings  are,  at  birth,  not  very  varied, 
because  the  brain  is  as  yet  inactive.  The  repetition  of 
feelings  opposite  in  character  produces  memory,  power 
of  abstraction,  judgment,  and  inference.  Astonishment, 
and  fear,  which  is  akin  to  it,  are  powerful  factors  in  the 
incipient  development  of  a  child's  intellect.  The  desire 
of  what  once  caused  pleasure,  produces  gradually  the 
power  of  will. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  POWER  OF  WILL. 

An  act  of  will  is  only  possible  after  the  child's  faculties 
of  conception  have  been  developed.  Kepetition  of  com- 
parison between  a  desirable  or  undesirable  sensation, 
must  have  led  to  a  perception  of  differences  before  an  act 
of  will  can  be  performed.  Consequently,  the  newly  born 
child  has  no  will,  as  it  is  without  experience  of  compari- 
son, which  a  human  being  has  gained  by  acting  according 
to  his  will,  which  finally  regulates  his  conduct.  To  under- 
stand the  very  slow  progressive  changes  from  one  mental 
condition  to  another,  we  have  to  consider  them  in  their 
gradual  steps,  like  a  slowly  moving  stream.  It  is,  there- 
fore, our  duty  to  observe  those  movements  and  that  period 
in  which  we  know  man  void  of  will,  and  to  note  the  time 
when  he  may  present  an  act  of  will  in  its  most  primitive 
stage.  The  second  part  of  this  book  refers  to  those  move- 
ments which  are  connected  with  the  formation  of  will. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MOVEMENTS  OF  THE  CHILD  AS  EXPRESSIONS  OF  ITS 

WILL. 

It  is  only  through  movements  that  the  will  can  be 
directly  recognized.  The  possibility  of  recognizing  the 
gradual  development  of  will  in  the  child  must,  therefore, 
be  gained  through  observations  of  his  manifold  motions. 

RECOGNITION  OP  THE  WILL  OF  THE  CHILD. 

However  different  may  be  the  manifestations  resulting 
from  the  power  of  will,  all  expressions  of  will  are  prin- 
cipally perceived  by  motions,  such  as  words,  actions, 
facial  expressions,  and  gestures.  Yet  not  every  sound, 
nor  action,  nor  expression,  nor  gesture  can  be  called 
the  result  of  an  act  of  will,  because  a  sleeping  person 
speaks,  and  the  somnambulist  may  accomplish  many  acts 
unconsciously,  and  facial  expressions  may  be  performed 
without  will  by  artificial  electric  sensations.  The  nurs- 
ling produces  gestures  and  facial  expressions,  the  mean- 
ing of  which,  as  an  expression  of  will,  seems  unknown 
to  the  adult.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  decidedly  ac- 
cepted that  these  acts  under  normal  circumstances  give 
proof  of  a  development  of  will.  After  the  first  period 
of  development,  the  power  of  will  may^gpreas^itself  in 


416  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

the  negative,  by  suppressing  certain  movements.  No 
one  doubts  that  a  human  being  is  capable  of  expressing 
his  will  indirectly  by  keeping  silent  or  giving  the  least 
expression  in  face  and  gesture.  This  is  a  mere  nega- 
tive act  of  will. 

The  four  following  characteristics  enable  one  to  distin- 
guish an  act  of  will :  — 

(1.)  Every  intended  motion  is  preceded  by  concep- 
tions, one  of  which  especially  possesses  motoric  power 
as  a  cause  of  motion. 

(2.)  Every  intended  motion  is,  to  the  one  who  exe- 
cutes it,  generally  and  specifically  known. 

(3.)  Following  a  more  or  less  clearly  conceived  aim, 
the  action  may  finally, 

(4.)  Be  checked  in  the  very  first  moment  of  the  im- 
pulse of  will  by  new  conceptions. 

Every  movement  to  which  these  four  distinctions  are 
not  applicable  is  unintentional.  Therefore,  all  muscular 
movements  of  man  must  be  recognized  as  acts  with 
will  or  without  will,  as  intentional  or  unintentional. 

The  will  arises  not  out  of  nothing,  nor  has  it  any  pre- 
vious existence,  but  is  developed  from  those  impulsive 
desires  consequent  on  sensations,  and  later  on  concep- 
tions. It  is  not  innate,  but  inheritable.  The  variable 
excitability  of  the  central  motor  organs,  and  the  original 
(impulsive)  movement  connected  therewith,  which  adults 
designate  as  desires,  are  the  first  germ  of  the  will.  In 
order  to  ascertain  with  certainty  at  what  time   the   will 


RECOGNITION    OF   THE   WILL    OF   THE    CHILD. 


417 


makes  its  appearance,  it  is  requisite  to  examine  whether 
any  new  movement,  as,  for  instance,  the  first  extension 
of  the  hand  toward  some  objects  noticed,  be  accidental, 
or  intended ;  that  is,  whether  the  desiring  as  well  as 
the  grasping  child  knows  the  movement,  and  its  end  is 
really  represented  to  him;  but  then,  even,  it  is  not  yet 
necessarily  voluntary,  which  it  is  as  soon  as  it  can  be 
restrained,  as,  for  instance,  by  the  representation  of  un- 
pleasant consequences. 

Four  distinct  kinds  of  movements  are  to  be  noticed, 
namely,  the  impulsive,  reflex,  instinctive,  and  intended 
movements. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

IMPULSIVE  MOTIONS. 

Preyer  devotes  this  chapter,  from  which  only  short 
extracts  are  made,  to  the  opinion  that  a  characteristic 
mark  is  wanted  by  which  the  movements  of  the  extremi- 
ties of  a  newly  born  child  should  be  at  once  recognized 
as  instinctive  and  imitative  movements.  "They  are  re- 
flex," he  says,  "  in  the  movements  of  the  arms  and 
legs,  as  a  result  of  peripheric  irritation  before  and  after 
birth."  Asking,  "When  is  the  first  motion  of  the  embryo 
accomplished?"  he  points  to  the  chick  in  the  egg,  which 
moves  on  the  fifth  day,  and  shows  the  similarity  between 
this  and  the  human  embryo.  "  Impulsive  motions  are 
not  instinctive,  because  they  are  used  aimlessly  and 
without  advantage.  They  do  not  exist  in  the  young 
child  because  of  the  lack  of  emotional  conditions  on 
account  of  the  incomplete  mechanism  of  the  brain." 
Referring  to  the  difficulty  of  solving  these  problems, 
he  speaks  of.  the  works  of  Alex.  Bain,  and  his  own 
treatise  on  "  Psychogenesis,"  1880. 

He  says :  "  Purely  impulsive  motions  are  those  which 
start  directly  as  contractions  of  the  muscles  from  mo- 
toric centers."  They  are  not  numerous,  and  are  as 
follows :  — ■ 


IMPULSIVE    MOTIONS. 


419 


(10 

(2-) 

(3.) 

bathing. 

(4-) 
(5.) 
(6.) 


The  stretching  of  the  arms  and  legs. 

The  movements  of  the  eyes,  also  the  snoring. 

The   manifold   movements   of   the    nursling   in 


The  expressions  met  in  sleeping  babies. 

The  cooing  and  crowing. 

The  sympathetic  movements,  illustrated  by  imi- 
tating different  sounds,  music,  etc.,  by  copying  the  pecul- 
iar manners  of  others ;  in  short,  everything  that  reaches 
the  sphere  of  their  wide-awake  interest. 


CHAPTER  X. 

BEFLEX  MOVEMENTS. 

Facts  proved  in  my  examination  of  the  embryos  of 
many  animals  show  that,  in  spite  of  even  the  strongest 
and  most  varied  irritations  at  the  earliest  stages  of  de- 
velopment, no  reflex  motions  can  be  produced,  though 
motions  of  bending  and  stretching  the  trunk  are  regular. 
This  proves  the  inconsistency  of  a  wide-spread  opinion 
that  all  movements  of  a  newly  born  child  are  reflex. 
In  the  first  days  of  life  the  child  has  in  many  respects 
less  reflex  sensibilities  than  the  nursling  afterwards 
shows,  and  yet  it  moves  more  actively.  Notwithstand- 
ing many  reflex  motions  of  the  newly  born  are  already 
strongly  developed,  and  fully  correspond  with  the  last 
stages  of  the  foetal  condition,  they  are  of  great  psy- 
chogenetic  importance,  because  through  their  frequent 
repetition  the  harmonious  activity  of  many  muscles  is 
perfected,  thereby  serving  to  prevent  injurious  and  dis- 
comforting effects,  through  which  co-ordination  the  de- 
velopment of  the  will  is  finally  accomplished.  Undoubt- 
edly the  strength  of  the  gradually  developing  apparatus 
of  the  brain  and  will  lies  in  the  hindrance  to  reflex 
motions.  The  latter,  even  for  this  reason,  must  have 
taken  place  previously,  so  that  here  and  there  disadvan- 


Keflex  movements.  421 

tageous  effects  are  experienced ;  as,  for  instance,  there  is 
no  use  in  crying,  therefore,  it  is  better  not  to  breathe 
so  loud  and  violently.  By  these  logical  operations,  long 
before  the  acquirement  of  speech ,  the  foundation  for  self- 
restraint  is  laid,  which  proceeds  from  the  restraint  of 
reflex  movements.  Breathing  is  a  continued  line  of  reflex 
motion  beginning  with  birth.  The  first  cry  of  the  newly 
born  child  was  formerly  not  regarded  as  reflex,  but  it 
is  almost  certain  that  the  first  loud  breathing  is  only  a 
reflex  activity. 

The  beginning  of  reflex  muscular  contractions  falls  into 
the  period  before  birth,  making  it  possible  that  outer 
impressions,  by  prolonged  pulsations,  produce  and  even 
increase  movements  of  the  liqua  anima  in  the  later  foetal 
period. 

Preyer  refers  to  the  often-cited  conception  of  Kant 
about  the  first  cry  of  the  child,  concluding  that  such 
opinions  vanish  under  the  often-contested  fact  that  chil- 
dren cry  without  possessing  any  brain,  and  that  some 
children,  as  Darwin  says,  sneeze.  Sneezing  is  often 
found  in  nurslings,  and  proves  the  close  connection  be- 
tween the  nasal  channels  of  the  trigeminous  with  the 
motor  expiratory  nerves,  and  is  remarkable,  as  it  de- 
mands, like  sobbing,  an  inherited  complicated  co-ordina- 
tion of  several  muscles. 

Other  inherited  processes,  as  loud  exhalation,  are  often 
met  with  in  small  children,  but  they  are  of  little  conse- 
quence.    Among  these  we  may  number  coughing,  hem- 


422  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

ming,  and  even  sobbing  and  sighing,  —  two  characteristic 
processes,  which,  though  found  in  later  years,  have  no 
expressive  meaning  in  the  child,  who  may  sigh  in  its 
most  happy  mood. 

Breathing,  at  the  beginning  of  life,  is  entirely  free 
from  emotions.  The  rise  and  fall  of  the  breast  in  its 
emotional  effects,  the  stopping  of  breathing  on  account 
of  excitement,  are  not  found  in  early  life.  The  respira- 
tions of  the  nursling  during  the  first  wTeek  are,  neverthe- 
less, very  irregular,  so  that  people  may  be  mistaken  in 
their  judgments.  The  breathing  is  sometimes  very  quick, 
then  feeble,  and  interrupted  by  apnoic  pauses,  then  again 
by  rhythmic,  then  for  a  short  time  deep,  next  shallow, 
returning  to  the  normal  type.  At  the  end  of  the  seventh 
week,  the  number  of  respirations  in  sleeping  was  twenty- 
eight  in  a  minute  ;  at  the  thirteenth  week,  twenty-seven. 
They  remained  irregular  for  months  ;  after  four  or  five 
quick  respirations,  there  followed  a  pause,  interrupted  by 
a  number  of  deep  breaths.  The  older  the  child,  the  more 
regular  they  became. 

While  teething  (nine  months)  they  increased  some- 
times to  forty  and  forty-two  in  a  minute.  In  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  months,  during  sleep  they  were 
twenty-two  and  twenty-five  per  minute,  and  remained 
regular.  At  every  noise  not  sufficient  to  awake  the 
child,  the  frequency  of  the  respirations  was  at  once  in- 
creased to  twenty-five  and  twenty-six,  but  it  returned 
soon  to   the   normal    condition.     This  exceptional  reflex 


REFLEX  MOVEMENTS.  423 

sensibility  of  the  respiratory  organs  I  have  observed 
very  often.  It  is  remarkable,  because  it  proves  the  exist- 
ence of  a  reflex  arch  from  the  nerves  of  hearing  to  the 
nerves  of  respiration. 

The  very  slow  consolidation  of  the  whole  mechanism 
ot  breathing  in  all  nurslings  depends  unquestionably  on 
the  great  reflex  sensibility.  In  after-life  stronger  and 
more  frequent  irritations  will  have  no  influence  on  the 
change  of  respiration.  The  act  of  respiration,  as  the 
motions  of  the  heart,  is  generally  regulated  without  the 
action  of  the  will.  It  illustrates  excellently  the  devel- 
opment of  the  most  complicated  coordinate  muscular 
activity,  of  which  there  was  no  trace  before  birth.  The 
coordination  begins  directly  after  birth,  through  suffi- 
ciently strong  irritations  of  the  nerves  of  the  skin  ;  like 
an  incomplete,  periodical  reflex  motion,  it  is  not  only 
inherited  but  inborn,  though  not  so  highly  perfected  as 
it  is  after  longer  activity.  Among  the  aperiodic  reflex 
movements  we  may  mention  vomiting,  choking,  and  hic- 
coughing. In  choking,  from  one  to  live  days  old,  chil- 
dren stretch  out  their  tongues  with  a  reflex  lifting  of  the 
head,  making  faces  like  adults.  The  common  cause 
seems  to  be  an  accumulation  of  phlegm,  but  it  may  be 
produced  by  a  tickling  of  the  gum  and  the  root  of  the 
tongue  by  bitter  substances.  Vomiting  is  the  result  of 
overloaded  stomach,  indigestible  food,  or  of  putting 
a  finger  into  the  throat.  In  the  fifth  week  I  saw,  without 
ny    external  irritation,    milk    previously  taken,  spring- 


424  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

ing  like  a  fountain,  three  or  four  inches  high  from  the 
mouth  of  the  child  while  lying  on  his  back.  Hiccoughing 
can  be  stopped  by  putting  a  half-teaspoonful  of  sweetened 
water  on  the  tongue.  I  saw  a  very  bad  case  so  cured  at 
once,  but  I  can  give  no  reason  for  this  domestic  remedy. 
The  complicated  mechanism  of  swallowing  is  a  long-pre- 
pared and  inborn  act  of  man  and  animals.  Preyer  refers 
afterwards  to  a  number  of  extensive  experiments  he  made 
on  his  own  child  to  produce  reflex  motions  while  sleep- 
ing. When  touched  on  the  left  side  he  moved  involun- 
tarily the  left  arm,  and  vice  versa.  He  also  states  that 
he  differs  from  other  scientists,  leading  to  definitions 
which  do  not  seem  to  belong  directly  to  our  purpose. 
The  reflex  starting,  shrugging,  and  stretching  out  of  the 
arms  after  a  sudden  strong  impression,  especially  that  of 
sound,  also  the  shrinking  back  of  the  head  with  a  quick 
motion,  when  frightened,  have  not  been  observed  in  the 
very  young  child.  It  is  impossible  that  newly  born 
animals  or  children  should  become  frightened,  even  when 
meeting  with  some  unpleasant  sensation,  as,  for  instance, 
a  strong,  shining  light.  This  stage  below  sensibility 
lasts,  however,  only  for  the  first  few  days.  With  fully 
matured  children,  the  capacity  for  fright  can  be  seen 
in  a  greater  or  less  marked  degree  after  the  second 
day. 

Another  constant  symptom  of  fright  in  children  is 
their  silence.  Crying  begins,  after  a  certain  pause,  when 
the  child  falls  down.     It  is  possible  that  this  condition 


an 

? 


REFLEX   MOVEMENTS.  425 

of  being  unable  to  cry  is  like  that  of  aphthongia*  or 
reflexaphasia,  and  tetanic  irritation  of  the  motoric  nerves, 
especially  the  nerves  of  the  tongue.  This  takes  place 
more  often  with  children  than  with  adults,  and  is  caused 
by  their  power  of  will  being  suddenly  paralyzed,  prevent- 
ing them  from  uttering  a  sound. 

All  consciously  moved  muscles,  including  those  of  the 
tongue,  the  head,  and  the  windpipe,  become  immovable 
by  reason  of  the  want  of  impulse  of  will.  This  shows 
that  the  sensibility  of  the  reflective  organs  is  lowered, 
and  is  probably  the  cause  of  the  noiselessness  of  fright- 
ened persons  at  the  first  momemt.  The  very  strong 
irritation  of  some  single  nerve  centers  affects  the  hin- 
drance of  all  other  central  functions.  Finally,  the  mo- 
toric impulse  being  developed,  the  cramp  of  the  tongue 
ceases,  and  this  condition  disappears,  and  crying  becomes 
possible.  A  long  series  of  experiences  is  needed  for 
one  to  become  conscious  of  such  reflex  motions  of  fright, 
md  its  influences  and  the  activity  of  the  will  may  be 
ontrolled ;  yet  some  are  not  able  to  do  this  at  all ;  for 
lie  development  of  the  child's  power  of  will,  these  are 
of  the  greatest  importance.  It  becomes  our  duty,  there- 
fore, to  exercise  our  children,  as  early  as  possible,  in 
the  conscious  control  of  the  hindrances  to  reflex  motions. 
At  the  beginning,  very  likely,  no  reflex  motion  is  hiu- 


*  That  is,  not  having  the  use  of  the  tongue,  lacking  the  power  of 
speech. 


426  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

dered,  but  according  to  Soltman,  there  exists  a  pecul- 
iarity which  lessens  these  disadvantages.  The  irritable- 
ness  of  the  nerves  gradually  increases  in  the  child  up 
to  the  sixth  week,  at  which  period  it  is  almost  equal  to 
that  of  adults.  The  moderate  irritableness  of  the 
motoric  nerves  counteracts  the  disposition  to  convul- 
sions. I  must  yield  to  Soltman's  opinion  in  this,  as  he 
is  in  sympathy  with  me,  and  lays  great  stress  on  the 
absence  of  will,  and  consequently  the  power  of  hindering 
reflex  motions.  After  many  experiments  on  unborn  and 
newly  born  animals,  Soltman  and  myself  found  that 
reflex  motions  increased  constantly  till  the  beginning  of 
the  period  which  may  be  called  that  of  reflex  reaction. 
It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  while  the  traces, 
by  constant  use,  become  more  and  more  passible,  ajd 
permit  quickness  of  motion,  the  peripheric  ends  of  the 
nerves  of  the  skin  become,  by  inevitable  contact  with 
moisture  and  cold,  less  sensitive.  Therefore,  in  spite  of 
what  had  been  gained  by  the  central  cerebral  and  spinal 
activity,  irritableness  is  lost  by  the  power  of  peripheral 
sensitiveness,  and  very  likely  the  slight  sensation  of  the 
newly  born  child  depends  on  its  internal  condition, 
because  in  the  prolonged  quiet  before  it  was  born,  the 
ends  of  the  nerves  in  the  skin  may  have  become  agitated, 
while  the  brain  was  still  inactive. 

It  is  extremely  desirable  that  by  observation  and  sim- 
ple experiments  the  beginning  of  the  powTer  to  hinder 
reflex    motions    should    be    discovered.     I    saw    a    child 


REFLEX  MOVEMENTS.  427 


sixteen  days  old  stop  crying  when  turned  face  down- 
wards on  a  cushion,  and  have  observed  in  several  young 
nurslings  the  quieting  effect  of  singing,  hushing,  and 
playing  on  the  piano.  But  these  are  not  strictly  cases 
in  which  self-restraint  is  exerted  ;  they  merely  show  the 
power  of  removing  an  unpleasant  feeling  on  account  of 
having  received  a  new  impression. 

Even  a  just-born  child,  when  violently  crying,  could 
be  satisfied  by  being  allowed  to  suck  a  finger.  The 
activity  of  the  brain  is  not  able  to  influence  the  reflex 
and  impulsive  activity  of  the  spinal  nerves,  because  the 
brain  is  not  sufficiently  developed.  True  restraining 
movement  can  only  be  surely  observed  in  small  chil- 
dren when  they  are  no  longer,  as  during  the  first  six 
or  nine  months,  without  the  least  sign  of  self-control  m 
the  secretion  of  the  waste  products  whose  accumulation 
irritates  them.  With  all  healthy  children  this  irritation 
is  great.  We  cannot  say  when  this  irritation,  which  be- 
gins normally  with  life,  was  first  controlled,  or  when  its 
immediate  satisfaction  was  not  retarded.  In  the  first 
year,  children  generally  begin  to  cry  when  the  act  is 
accomplished.  Later  they  cry  before,  announcing  its 
coming.  They  have  experienced  that  the  threatening, 
the  punishment,  and  the  natural  unpleasant  consequences 
of  the  immediate  reflex  activity  await  them ;  and  here 
lies  one  of  the  strongest  effects  of  early  education,  as  is 
proved  by  untrained  animals  and  insane  persons,  who 
do  not  exercise  such  control.     The  time  when  the  con- 


428  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

trol  of  the  sphincter  vesicle  is  acquired  is  difficult  to 
determine.  In  my  boy  it  was  surely  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  tenth  month,  when  healthy  and  awake,  that 
the  desire  of  secretion  was  always  expressed  by  great 
restlessness.  If  heeded  in  due  time,  the  secretion  did 
not  occur  until  some  minutes  after  he  was  placed  in 
proper  position.  All  this  time  he  needed,  in  order  to 
free  himself  from  the  restraint  he  had  himself  put  upon 
his  will.  Here  are  two  proofs  of  the  existence  of  free- 
will. 

(1.)  The  hindrance  of  a  reflex  motion  which  was 
hitherto  not  controlled  (six  months  old),  and  therefore 
not  under  the  influence  of  the  will. 

(2.)  The  willing  surrender  of  the  self-imposed  re- 
straint, so  giving  consent  to  the  act. 

The  first  act  of  prevention,  which,  if  not  attended  to  at 
once,  will  not  continue  long,  seems  not  to  be  acquired 
much  before  the  end  of  the  first  year,  but  rather  later. 
This  is  almost  a  failure,  if  the  child  is  not  perfectly  well, 
if  his  attention  is  diverted,  and  when  he  is  tired.  The 
conquering  of  the  reflex  irritations  while  sleeping,  inde- 
pendent of  will,  is  controlled  by  habit,  and  is  not  ac- 
quired until  much  later.  However,  it  has  to  be  consid- 
ered that  a  stronger  pressure  than  common  external 
irritation  disturbs  the  sleep,  thereby  giving  greater 
influence  to  the  will.  Those  reflex  motions  which  are 
not  hindered  through  our  whole  lifetime  seem  to  be 
more  distinct. 


REFLEX   MOVEMENTS. 


429 


The  queer  grimaces  of  little  children  and  their  inclina- 
tion to  convulsions  must  be  first  ascribed  to  a  lack  of 
the  power  of  self-restraint,  and  secondly,  to  the  physio- 
logical action  induced  by  their  irritation  when  teething, 
and  these  cannot  be  overcome  until  the  power  of  will  is 
strengthened  by  the  development  of  the  gray  matter  of 
the  large  brain.  Preyer  states  that  the  sensation  of 
pain  hardly  exists,  and  makes  a  strong  appeal  for  a  close 
study,  investigation,  and  continued  statement  of  the  grad- 
ual development  of  reflex  movements,  beginning  in  the 
newly  born  children,  and  continued  to  the  age  when  they 
are  able  to  speak. 

He  points  especially  to  the  distinction  between  the 
innate,  the  acquired,  the  restraining,  and  the  purely  phys- 
ical reflex  movements,  and  those  arising  from  pain,  and 
wishes  investigations  to  be  made,  in  order  to  discover  if 
there  is  any  such  reflex  motion  which  belongs  solely  to 
man. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

INSTINCTIVE  MOVEMENTS. 

Instinctive  human  movements  are  not  numerous,  and 
with  the  exception  of  sexual  ones,  difficult  to  perceive 
after  the  first  days  of  youth.  The  more  carefully  should 
the  instinctive  movements  of  the  newly  born  and  the 
nursling  be  observed.  To  this  end,  a  close  observation 
of  newly  born  animals  is  necessary. 

INSTINCTIVE  MOVEMENTS   OF  NEWLY  BORN 
ANIMALS. 

Instinctive  motions  are  unquestionably  shown  by  the 
little  chick,  a  few  hours  after  leaving  the  eggf  even  when 
it  is  still  occupied  in  bursting  the  shell.  This  is  proved 
from  the  moment  it  bursts  its  shell,  and  is  deprived  for 
several  days  of  its  power  of  sight.  In  an  instance  ob- 
served by  me,  six  minutes  after  the  sight  was  restored,  it 
turned  its  head  to  follow  a  fly  that  was  passing  at  a  dis- 
tance of  twenty  inches.  Ten  minutes  afterwards,  the 
insect  came  within  its  reach ;  it  was  caught  by  the  first 
effort,  and  swallowed.  Twenty  minutes  passed,  and  the 
little  chick  was  placed  at  a  certain  distance  from  the  hen 
and  her  brood,  so  that  it  could  see  and  hear  them.  It 
peeped  for  a  few  moments,  and  ran  directly  to  the  hen. 


INSTINCTIVE   MOVEMENTS   OF   NEWLY   BORN   ANIMALS.     431 

Many  unsuccessful  efforts  of  picking  and  grasping  are 
made,  but  the  following  instinctive  movements  are  com- 
plete :  first,  motions  of  the  head  to  see  movable  ob- 
jects ;  second,  picking,  when  in  reach  of  them ;  third, 
running  at  the  first  call  and  the  first  sight  of  the  hen ; 
fourth,  motions  of  the  bill  and  head  for  swallowing  small 
objects.  All  these  movements  may  fail  to  show  them- 
selves, even  when  outer  conditions  encourage  their  ap- 
pearance, but  they  never  can  be  considered  as  acquired, 
or  as  the  result  of  free  will,  because  they  are  new  to  the 
chick  itself,  and  instinctively  executed,  without  any  view 
to  success.  If  this  was  not  so,  a  little  chick  would  not 
repeatedly  pick  at  its  own  claws.  The  very  young  chick 
never  having  perceived  movements,  can  have  no  concep- 
tion of  their  effects,  because  it  had  no  experience  ;  but 
its  forefathers  had  a  conception,  and  the  chick  inherited 
the  memory  of  it  unknowingly.  The  chick  acts,  seem- 
ingly, skillfully  and  intelligently,  not  by  its  own  reason, 
but  by  an  inherited  power  of  connecting  the  memory  of 
its  sensuous  experiences  with  the  memory  of  motor  ex- 
periences ;  not  with  the  memory  of  the  success  previously 
gained,  which  would  represent  a  voluntary  act.  The 
diligent  smoothing  of  its  down  with  its  bill,  the  scratching 
of  its  head  with  its  foot,  and  the  scratching  on  the  second 
day,  all  executed  without  any  model,  can  only  be  re- 
garded as  instinctive  movements.  Mr.  Spaulding  says 
quite  truly,  "  The  instinct  of  the  present  generation  is  the 
result  of  the  accumulated   experiences   of  past  genera- 


432  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

tions."  The  permanence  of  such  association,  related  to 
the  individuality  of  man,  depends  on  the  necessary  im- 
pression on  the  nervous  system. 

No  one  is  able  to  gain  for  the  second  time  the  same 
individual  conception,  but  by  hearing  the  ringing  of  a 
bell,  which  we  heard  the  previous  day,  the  same  sound 
reaches  our  ear,  enabling  us,  by  the  connection  of  nerves 
and  nerve  centers,  to  recall  and  conceive  once  more 
our  former  experience.  Why  should  not  these  modifi 
cations  of  the  brain  substance  from  hour  to  hour,  from 
day  to  day,  under  the  most  favorable  conditions  of  ac- 
quisition, be  transferred  from  the  parent  to  the  child, 
like  any  other  physical  peculiarity?  Instinct  is  inherited 
memory.  The  fact  that  not  all  senso-motoric  combina- 
tions (Verkniipfungen)  are  transmitted  to  the  descend- 
ants, does  not  invalidate  this  conception  of  instinct  as 
a  hereditary  association.  Some  of  these  combinations 
may  not  be  sufficiently  strong  to  be  transmitted.  In 
the  chicken,  the  strongest  are  the  movements  of  pick- 
ing, swallowing,  peeping,  running,  scratching,  and  flap- 
ping the  undeveloped  wings  as  it  plunges  forward, 
each  and  all  being  experiments  which  I  observed  in  the 
fourth  hour  of  its  life,  without  any  model.  Some  of  these 
inherited  instincts  may  die  if  not  encouraged.  Chickens 
hatched  by  Allen  Thompson  on  a  carpet,  and  kept  there 
for  several  days,  did  not  show  any  distinct  inclination 
to  scratch,  on  account  of  the  want  of  friction  and  the 
consequent  disuse  of  the  inherited  mechanism  of  scratch- 


INSTINCTIVE    MOVEMENTS   OF   NEWLY   BORN    ANIMALS.     433 

ing ;  but  as  soon  as  a  little  gravel  was  placed  on  the 
carpet,  the  scratching  began.  I  have  seen  chickens  four 
weeks  old,  which  had  been  raised  in  an  incubator  and 
separated  from  other  chickens,  scratching  on  a  smooth 
white  piece  of  paper,  as  if  the- effect  of  light  on  the 
broad  surface  could  be  scratched  away.  This  shows  that 
it  is  done  without  reflection,  following  quite  instinctively 
the  sense  of  sight  and  touch.  The  swallow  does  not 
learn  to  fly,  but  it  exercises  its  wings  before  leaving  the 
nest,  by  spreading  and  flapping  them  repeatedly.  The 
first  flight  is  slower  than  that  of  its  parent,  but  does  not 
hurt  itself.  In  a  few  days  it  has  gained  self-reliance. 
The  movements  of  flight  are  not  the  act  of  will ;  they 
are  instinctive  as  the  picking  with  the  chicken.  I  do  not 
think  that  picking  is,  as  was  previously  supposed,  an 
imitation  of  the  noise  of  picking  of  the  mother.  Preyer 
refers  to  a  number  of  instinctive  activities,  resembling 
individual  intelligence,  tested  by  the  following  observa- 
tions made  by  Agassiz  :  Young  hermit  crabs,  when  just 
escaped  from  the  egg,  reach  out  with  exceptional  vivacity 
toward  certain  shells  which  are  put  in  the  water  for  them, 
observing  the  opening  with  their  mouth,  and  take  up 
their  quarters  in  them  with  wonderful  rapidity.  In  case 
the  shell  is  still  inhabited,  the  crab  remains  close  to  the 

*ening  till  the  creature  dies,  which  really  happens  soon 
er   its   imprisonment.     The    little  crab   takes    out  the 
corpse,  devours  it,  and  enters  the  empty  shell.     What  an 
ount   of  foresight !      This   preference   for   the   empty 


434  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

shell  shows  us  that  the  whole  process  cannot  be  inherited. 
But  the  young  animals  are  not  instructed.  They  were 
separated  from  their  parents,  and  had  neither  time  nor 
opportunity  for  individual  experience.  Therefore,  the 
capacity  of  waiting  must  have  been  inherited,  in  case 
the  shell  were  occupied,  as  well  as  the  power  of  dis- 
criminating between  the  empty  and  the  occupied  shell. 
How  is  this  applicable  to  the  child  of  man?  The  same 
is  true  as  in  the  case  of  these  animals,  the  chicken  and 
all  others,  which  are  clever  in  only  one  direction,  and 
which  come  into  the  world  with  a  good  share  of  inherited 
memory  for  motions,  i.  e.,  with  instinctive  motility. 

WHICH  MOTIONS  OP  THE  CHILD  ARE  INSTINCTIVE? 
MOST  OF  ALL,  THE  GRASPING  MOTION.  THE 
DEVELOPMENT    OF    GRASPING. 

Of  all  movements  of  the  nursling  in  the  first  half-year, 
not  one  is  of  such  importance,  in  its  mental  develop- 
ment, as  its  grasping  movements.  I  therefore  directed 
my  special  attention  towards  them.  Some  observers 
consider  the  reaching  forwards  and  backwards  with  the 
hands  in  the  first  days  of  life  as  an  act  of  grasping, 
as  the  fingers  are  not  only  pushed  in  the  face  of  the 
child,  but  also  in  its  mouth.  This  view  is  inconsistent 
with  the  usual  meaning  and  action  of  grasping.  Grasp- 
ing presumes  the  conception  of  a  desirable  object  and  the 
necessary  control  of  muscles,  and  these  do  not  exist  at 
this  period.     The  first  placing  of  the  hand  in  the  mouth 


WHICH   MOTIONS    OF   THE    CHILD   ARE    INSTINCTIVE  ?       435 

has  nothing  in  common  with  the  later  grasping,  save  as 
both  demand  a  motion  of  the  arm.  The  hand  is  not 
always  carried  to  the  face,  but  among  the  many  aimless 
reachings  about,  it  happens  that  it  goes  into  the  mouth, 
a  most  natural  act,  derived  from  the  position  of  the  arms 
in  the  foetus.  Newly  born  children  continue  to  keep  this 
position,  putting  their  hands,  as  before  birth,  to  the  face 
and  towards  their  lips.  In  case  the  lips  are  touched,  the 
nursling  is  tempted  to  perform  the  motions  of  sucking ; 
therefore,  the  early  sucking  of  the  fingers,  perceived  by 
Kussmaul  on  the  first  and  by  myself  on  the  fifth  day, 
followed  by  biting  the  finger,  cannot  be  called  inten- 
tional. The  position  of  the  arms  and  hands  in  the  uterus 
is  the  result  of  limited  space.  Any  other  position  would 
demand  more  space  for  the  embryo.  It  does  not  seem 
justifiable  to  recognize  in  these  first  approaches  of  the 
hand  to  the  mouth  the  beginning  of  a  grasping  move- 
ment. The  young  nursling,  whose  fingers  accidentally 
enter  his  mouth,  is  unable  to  replace  them  when  taken 
away.  Even  if  placed  near  the  lips,  he  is  not  able  to 
keep  them  there,  on  account  of  the  weight  of  the  arm. 
The  nursling,  at  the  ninth  day,  while  asleep,  did  not  clasp 
my  finger  as  he  did  when  awake ;  yet  this  does  not 
prove  an  intentional  grasping,  but  a  mere  reflex  motion. 
The  proof  of  this  I  see  in  the  fact  that  another  child  of 
seventeen  months,  when  I  put  my  finger  in  his  palm  while 
asleep,  did  not  clasp  it ;  but  when  I  rubbed  gently  on  the 
upper  part  of  the  hand,  he  clasped  it,  without  waking. 


436  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

The  foot  presents  similar  conditions  to  the  hand.  The 
failure  to  clasp  the  finger  while  asleep  may  be  ascribed 
to  the  insufficient  sensitiveness  of  the  nerves  of  the  skin, 
and  the  lessening  of  the  reflex  sensitiveness  during  sleep. 
The  first  grasping  after  objects,  with  the  distinct  desire  to 
get  them,  Sigismund  observed  in  a  boy  nineteen  weeks 
old,  and  I  in  a  girl  eighteen  weeks  old,  and  in  my  own 
boy  at  seventeen  weeks.  The  use  of  the  thumb,  as  an 
absolute  necessity  for  any  act  of  grasping,  is  slowly 
acquired  by  the  child,  while  the  ape  uses  it  to  perfection 
the  first  week.  From  the  third  to  the  seventh  wTeck, 
the  child  did  not  encircle  my  finger  with  his  thumb,  but 
only  with  his  fingers.  In  the  eighth  week  I  became 
assured  that  the  thumb  as  well  as  the  fingers  was  placed 
round  a  pencil. 

At  the  end  of  the  twelfth  week,  when  throwing  round 
its  arms,  it  often  happened  that  my  finger  entered  its 
little  hand.  On  the  eighty-fourth  day,  I  saw  for  the  first 
time  the  use  of  the  thumb,  in  such  a  way  that  it  looked 
as  if  the  child  had  intentionally  grasped  at  the  finger 
which  was  held  within  his  reach,  and  made  to  follow 
passively  the  motions  of  his  arms  and  fingers.  This 
experiment  being  several  times  repeated,  I  became  fully 
convinced  that  the  use  of  the  thumb  and  the  grasping  of 
the  fingers  were  unintentional,  reflex,  merely  the  con- 
sequence of  the  sensitiveness  of  the  skin.  I  myself,  at 
least,  have  not  been  able  to  discover  any  sign  of  inten- 
tional  grasping   before  the   fourth   month,  —  an   opinion 


WHICH  MOTIONS   OF  THE   CHILD   ARE   INSTINCTIVE  P      437 

which  is  accepted  by  several  other  scientists.  At  the 
one  hundred  and  seventeenth  day,  I  observed  that  a  little 
rubber  ball,  placed  within  his  reach,  failed  to  be  caught. 
When  placed  in  his  hand,  he  held  it  long  and  closely, 
moved  it  to  his  mouth  and  eyes,  and  a  new  and  intelli- 
gent expression  became  visible.  On  the  next  day,  ener- 
getic efforts  to  grasp  were  repeated ;  but  he  grasped 
often  in  vain,  trying  to  seize  things  at  the  distance  of 
twice  the  length  of  his  arm.  In  all  cases  he  showed  great 
attention.  The  next  day,  everything  that  came  within 
the  reach  of  the  arms  seemed  to  give  great  pleasure  to 
the  child,  but  not  less  astonishment.  In  the  eighteenth 
week,  his  failure  to  grasp  led  the  child  to  close  observa- 
tion of  his  own  fingers.  Probably  he  expected  the  sen- 
sation of  touch,  and  when  this  happened,  he  wondered 
at  the  novelty  of  the  sensation ;  he  likewise  went  on 
carrying  to  the  mouth  several  objects.  At  this  period 
the  stretching  forward  of  the  arms  to  grasp  is  the  ex- 
pression of  a  strong  desire.  On  the  one  hundred  and 
twenty-first  day  the  child  for  the  first  time  stretched 
both  its  arms  toward  me  at  the  early  morning  greeting, 
with  an  indescribable  expression  of  longing.  Nothing 
was  shown  the  previous  day  to  promise  such  an  act ; 
the  progress  from  grasping  after  lifeless  objects  to  a 
member  of  the  family  was  sudden. 

Nineteenth  week,  the  child  took  a  piece  of  meat  which 
was  offered  on  the  point  of  a  fork,  and  placed  it  with  his 
hand  in  his  mouth. 


438  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

In  the  twenty-second  week  his  grasping  for  objects 
with  both  hands,  in  a  direction  corresponding  to  the  lines 
of  sight,  was  more  sure,  and  his  attention  quite  lively.  In 
order  to  do  so,  the  child,  who  was  lying  on  his  back,  rose 
to  a  sitting  position  and  bent  forward. »  The  fixing  of  the 
attention  is  expressed  especially  by  a  sudden  pushing 
forward  of  the  lips,  a  pursing  of  the  mouth,  which  I 
observed  on  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-third  day  in 
connection  with  grasping  movements.  The  act  of  grasp- 
ing was,  however,  still  incomplete,  as  the  four  fingers  did 
not  operate  in  close  connection  with  the  thumb.  On  see- 
ing a  desirable  object,  the  child  spread  the  five  fingers  of 
both  his  hands,  and  stretched  his  arms.  The  power  to 
use  his  thumbs  and  fingers  in  unison  is  not  easily  acquired, 
as  not  only  the  coordinate  act  of  will  is  necessary  every 
time  this  is  done,  but  it  depends  also  on  the  position  and 
form  of  the  object,  and  the  number  of  fingers  used  acci- 
dentally in  bending  round  it. 

At  the  thirtieth  week  the  act  of  grasping  was  quickened 
and  developed,  in  spite  of  this  uncertainty  in  estimating 
distance.  Form,  color,  and  glistening  objects  awaken 
the  pleasure  of  the  child,  and  any  object  reached  is  placed 
in  the  mouth,  and  the  tongue  is  stretched  out  to  lick  it. 
There  is  an  underlying  reason  for  this.  Sucking  and 
tasting  are  the  strongest  and  most  experienced  pleasant 
sensations  known  to  the  young  being;  therefore,  in  case 
he  meets  with  a  new  and  pleasant  one,  —  for  instance, 
a  light  color,  a  round,  smooth  body,  or   a  smooth  sur- 


I 


WHICH   MOTIONS    OF   THE    CHILD   ARE    INSTINCTIVE  ?      439 

face, — he  attempts  to  bring  it  in  contact  with  his  lips 
and  tongue,  through  which  the  pleasant  taste  of  the  milk 
was  introduced  to  him.  The  parts  of  *the  child's  own 
body  appear  to  him  strange  objects. 

At  thirty-two  weeks  old  he  likes  to  stretch  his  legs 
vertically  upwards,  and  observe  his  feet  attentively,  as  he 
does  other  objects  outside  of  himself.  He  grasps  with  his 
hands  after  his  feet,  and  tries  to  bring  his  toes  into  his 
mouth.  The  child  expresses  his  interest  by  gazing  at  the 
object  which  he  holds,  and  pouting  his  mouth  ;  and  he  does 
so,  probably,  because  the  thing  which  was  previously 
seen  and  desired,  and  which  he  now  handles,  gives  -him 
new  sensations.  What  was  before  only  light,  becomes 
now  colored;  only  long  or  short,  now  appears  smooth, 
rough,  warm,  cold,  soft,  heavy,  light,  wet,  dry,  sticky,  or 
slippery.  The  connection  of  two  sensuous  impressions  in 
one  object  is  noted,  and  it  pleases  him.  His  own  foot  is 
such  an  object.  In  case  the  object  seen  and  handled  is 
immovable,  and  cannot  be  brought  to  his  mouth,  like  the 
ball  and  his  toes,  the  child  seeks,  nevertheless,  to  do  so, 
whether  the  thing  be  great  or  small,  because  in  doing  so 
he  derives  the  source  of  his  greatest  pleasure.  This  pleas- 
ure obtained  by  tasting  objects  which  he  has  grasped, 
causes  him  to  continue  his  attempts  at  grasping,  and 
probably  also  keeps  up  his  desire  to  taste  the  things  he 
obtains.  Then  the  child  remembers  his  taste  sensations, 
or,  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing  in  this  considera- 
tion, the   satisfied  feeling  which  he  has  after  the  satis- 


440  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

faction  of  hunger.  The  sequence  of  his  awaking  powers 
is  therefore,  first,  taste ;  then  taste  and  sight ;  then  sight 
and  desire ;  then  taste  and  increased  desire ;  at  last, 
sight,  grasping,  and  taste. 

Through  repetition,  the  recollection  of  tastes  becomes 
amalgamated,  so  to  speak,  with  seeing  and  grasping,  until 
experience  has  at  last  taught  him  that  things  handled 
have  no  taste  at  all,  or  an  unpleasant  one.  In  these  first 
attempts  to  grasp  at  objects,  it  is  to  be  noted  how  the 
child  fixes  his  attention,  and  pouts  his  mouth  ;  while  in  the 
thirty-fourth  week,  when  the  act  of  grasping  was  per- 
formed more  quickly,  the  mouth  was  always  open  and  the 
object  brought  to  it. 

When  the  child  was  left  to  himself  to  experiment 
with  a  crust  of  bread,  it  was  noticed  that  in  spite  of  his 
correctness  in  grasping,  his  open  mouth  could  not  al- 
ways be  found,  but  he  touched  his  cheeks,  chin,  and 
nose.  This  proves  an  uncertainty  which  still  existed 
when  attempting  to  eat  with  a  spoon  at  the  age  of  sev- 
enteen months.  It  is  impossible  to  decide  just  when 
the  child  could  first  put  his  finger  or  his  food  into  his 
mouth  without  touching  other  parts  of  his  face. 

At  the  time  of  teething,  the  child  no  longer  throws  his 
hands  aimlessly  about,  but  holds  three  or  four  fingers 
regularly  in  his  mouth,  as  this  gives  him  some  allevia- 
tion. So  doing,  he  comes  to  reflect,  and  touches  every 
spot  that  pains  him  which  he  can  reach  with  the  finger. 
Forty-three   weeks  old,  the  child   not  only  reaches  out 


WHICH  MOTIONS   OF   THE   CHILD   ARE  INSTINCTIVE  ?      441 

for  his  bottle  with  both  hands,  unaided,  but  carries  it 
directly  to  his  mouth. 

At  forty-five  weeks  old  he  grasped  after  the  flame  of 
a  lamp,  and  later  after  objects  separated  from  him  by  a 
window,  ignoring  the  transparency  of  glass,  which  ap- 
pears most  wonderful  to  all  children.  The  greatest 
progress  in  the  movement  of  the  arm  muscles  was  rec- 
ognized at  this  period  by  the  grasping  after  very  small 
pieces  of  paper  on  the  floor.  The  thumb  and  forefinger 
were  used  skillfully  in  picking  them  up.  In  his  frequent 
plays  with  small  pieces  of  paper,  occasion  was  given  to 
observe  the  previously  mentioned  inaccuracy  of  the 
sense  of  sight  unseconded  by  touch.  Hitherto  it  had 
been  necessary  to  take  the  little  pieces  which  the  child 
used  to  bite  out  of  his  mouth ;  now  at  fourteen  months, 
he  takes  out  every  piece  with  his  right  hand,  and  pre- 
sents it  to  me.  /  made  the  discovery  that  the  pieces 
which  were  on  his  mouth  or  on  his  lips  were  not  always 
recognized  by  touch  in  the  points  of  his  fingers,  so  that 
without  the  assistance  of  the  sense  of  sight  the  sense  of 
touch  was  incomplete. 

Both  senses  combined  had  accomplished  long  before 
some  remarkable  actions,  in  spite  of  his  numberless 
efforts  at  the  age  even  of  two  years  to  grasp  objects 
out  of  reach.  When  ten  months  old,  I  saw  the  child 
take  a  long  hair  and  observe  it  thoughtfully,  and  play 
with  it,  putting  it  from  one  hand  into  the  other.  Of 
the  many  thousand  nerves  and  muscular  fibers  necessary 


442  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

to  bring  such  movements  to  a  harmonious  activity,  very 
little  is  known ;  but  it  is  clear  that  the  child's  power 
of  will  originating  in  its  desires  already  directs  the  en- 
tire nervous  muscular  mechanism.  Before  being  capa- 
ble of  this  action,  the  movement  of  grasping  must  have 
been  repeated  many  hundred  times,  so  that  by  repeti- 
tion at  length  a  pleasant  sensation  had  been  brought 
about.  This  at  first  was  not  distinct,  but  little  by  little 
became  an  ever  clearer  and  clearer  perception,  and  at 
length  arose  a  conception  in  his  mind  of  the  concrete- 
ness  of  objects.  The  movements  of  the  arms,  which 
before  and  afterward  were  directed  to  the  mouth  and 
face,  must  have  been  repeated  many  times  before  the 
child  became  conscious  of  them.  But  when  the  desired 
object  was  conceived  by  the  child's  power  of  imagina- 
tion, when  the  movements  of  the  arms  were  compre- 
hended as  leading  to  a  certain  end,  then  the  consequence 
of  these  two  conceptions  as  inseparable  gave  rise  to  an 
act  of  will.  The  distinct  conception  of  the  motion  lost 
its  importance  as  soon  as  the  aim  was  clearly  recog- 
nized. On  the  contrary,  too  much  importance  has  of 
late  been  directed  to  the  necessary  pre-existing  concep- 
tion of  new  and  intended  motions,  especially  so  by 
Gude  and  Lotze,  whose  aim  this  is. 

Many  movements,  however,  which  are  governed  by 
the  will,  as  those  of  the  eyes,  are  generally  in  no 
sense  distinctly  preconceived,  that  is,  so  as  to  be  con- 
scious. 


WHICH   MOTIONS    OF   THE    CHILD   ARE    INSTINCTIVE  ?      443 

Only  generally  is  the  manner  recognized  for  directing 
the  end  of  a  necessary  movement. 

In  order  to  produce  a  simple  will  movement,  as  one 
arising  in  the  desire  for  objects,  similar  movements 
must  have  been  previously  produced  without  the  use  of 
the  will,  otherwise  the  muscular  sensations  could  not 
be  performed.  They  are  the  necessary  directing  powers 
of  self-conscious  motoric  impulses  in  the  child  as  well 
as  in  adults.  They  play,  in  connection  with  instinc- 
tive movements,  an  important  role,  because  the  memory- 
picture  of  the  innervation  or  muscle  feelings,  which 
forms  a  contraction  of  the  muscles  in  opposition  to  rest, 
decides  which  muscles  have  to  be  contracted,  and  how 
strongly.  This  happens  after  the  special  kind  of  motions 
necessary  are  fully  known.  In  case  of  any  conscious 
movement,  the  utilization  of  the  mind-pictures  is  quick- 
ened and  simplified  to  such  a  degree  that  the  cerebro- 
sensorium  can  be  left  out,  and  the  cerebro-motorium  be- 
comes sufficient  to  set  the  muscular  system  into  activity, 
after  a  sensoric  impression  was  made.  This  is  the  chief 
characteristic  of  the  cerebro-motoric  reflexes,  as,  for  in- 
stance, in  later  life,  the  grasping  of  a  hat  in  a  hurricane. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  in  dreams  with  children,  as  well 
as  in  hypnotics,  the  sensoric  impression  can  so  touch  the 
cerebro-sensorium  that  complex  movements  will  be  pro- 
duced in  the  same  manner  as  if  they  were  the  result 
of  an  act  of  will.  A  cerebral  restraining  apparatus 
wanting  in  the  nursling,  as  the  child  develops,  prevents 


444  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

more  and  more  the  idio-motoric  or  purely  reflex  (spinal 
motoric)  movements,  the  consequence  of  sensoric  im- 
pressions at  a  period  when  the  power  of  self-control 
begins  to  appear.  These  movements,  which  form  the 
beginning,  are  as  follows :  first,  the  movements  hither 
and  thither  of  the  hands  ;  second,  the  grasping  of  the 
fingers  placed  in  his  hands  ;  third,  a  mechanical  holding 
of  objects,  without  a  consciousness  of  the  action,  as  in 
adults,  certain  movements  become  involuntary  from  repe- 
tition, as,  for  instance,  the  unconscious  associated  action 
of  the  thumb,  a  purely  reflex  movement.  As  the  art  of 
holding  lasts  comparatively  longer  than  the  reflex  motions, 
and  the  attention  of  the  child,  though  very  slight  and 
quickly  passing  away,  is  directed  to  the  new  experience 
of  holding  something,  the  motion  cannot  be  longer  ac- 
complished without  the  curious  sensation  in  the  cerebro- 
sensorium,  in  spite  of  not  being  a  full  act  of  free  will. 
The  child  desires  the  object  which  comes  within  its 
reach,  and  tries  to  hold  it. 

From  the  act  of  directing  the  eyes  towards  an  object 
seized  to  that  of  holding  it,  is  only  a  step. 

BITING,    CHEWING,    LICKING. 

Sucking  is  one  of  the  earliest  coordinate  motions  of 
man,  and  is  connected  directly  with  swallowing.  It  takes 
place  even  before  birth  is  fully  accomplished,  whenever  an 
object,  fit  to  be  sucked,  is  placed  between  the  lips  and  the 
back  of  the  tongue. 


BITING,    CHEWING,    LICKING.  445 


In  December,  1870,  three  minutes  after  the  appearance 
of  the  head  of  a  newly  born  child,  who  began  to  cry 
softly  as  soon  as  his  mouth  was  free,  I  touched  with  my 
finger  the  top  of  his  tongue  and  he  stopped  crying  imme- 
diately and  began  to  suck  vigorously,  but  did  not  do  so 
when  I  put  my  finger  only  on  his  lips  or  between  them. 
Doubtless,  every  normally  developed  child  learns  before 
birth  to  swallow  the  amniotic  fluid ,  but  it  scarcely  sucks 
its  own  fingers.  As  regards  the  act  of  sucking,  itself,  it 
is  indifferent  whether  any  liquid  enters  the  mouth  or  not. 
The  sucking  for  hours  on  empty  rubber  pipes,  which  are 
often  given  to  children  to  gratify  them,  is  a  very  deplor- 
able custom,  as  is  likewise  the  sucking  of  handkerchiefs 
and  fingers  a  few  minutes  after  birth,  in  which  it  is  pre- 
sumed that  swallowing  is  not  necessary.  Under  normal 
conditions,  swallowing  is  that  muscular  activity  which 
is  directly  connected  with  sucking.  The  question  arises, 
In  what  sense  is  this  movement  useful?  Sucking  in 
human  monstrosities  without  brain,  and  little  dogs  with- 
out a  large  brain,  excludes  at  once  the  idea  of  the  neces- 
sity of  intellect,  the  power  of  will,  or  intention.  But  as 
in  the  normal  condition,  only  the  hungry,  or,  at  least, 
the  not  fully  satisfied  nursling  sucks,  and  the  satisfied 
one  pushes  the  nipple  away,  it  is  evident  that  this  is 
more  than  a  mere  reflex  motion.  Moreover,  the  ceasin"- 
of  the  sucking  motions  of  the  satisfied  child  cannot  be 
referred  to  fatigue  from  previous  sucking,  because  often 


446  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

movement,  because  with  the  wide-awake  child  at  first  it 
only  occurs  when  the  lips,  the  tongue,  or  the  gums  are 
touched  with  an  object  which  induces  sucking.  The 
sucking  movement  of  the  sleeping  or  dreaming  children, 
with  empty  or  untouched  mouths,  shows  that  sucking  can 
arise  from  purely  internal  causes,  after  it  has  once  been 
produced  by  surface  irritations.  According  to  this, 
sucking  must  be  regarded  as  an  instinctive  motion.  Any 
objection  to  this  is  easily  overcome.  It  has  been  stated  that 
young  animals  soon  forget  how  to  suck,  if  deprived  during 
a  few  days  of  the  occasion  for  doing  so.  Of  all  motions 
of  the  nursling,  no  one  is  so  perfect  from  the  beginning 
as  sucking ;  it  is  not  as  successfully  performed,  however, 
on  the  first  day  as  on  the  second.  I  found,  sometimes, 
the  efforts  at  sucking  in  the  first  hours  of  life  entirely  un- 
successful, unless  aided  by  turning  a  little  ivory  stick  in 
the  child's  mouth.  In  other  cases,  however,  sucking  pro- 
ceeded regularly  at  the  time  of  birth,  which  must  be 
founded  on  inherited  qualities.  The  intervals  of  sucking 
are  shortest  on  the  first  day  of  life,  and  increase  after- 
wards. The  reason  for  this  is,  that  at  first  the  child 
becomes  more  quickly  tired  and  his  little  stomach  more 
quickly  filled,  and  perhaps,  too,  because  of  the  imperfect 
condition  of  the  milk.  It  is  a  known  fact  that  the  child 
does  not  at  once  find  the  nipple  without  assistance,  not 
until  , after  several  days,  sometimes  not  until  the  eighth 
day.  This  is  much  later  than  with  animals,  but  the 
child  has  to   perform   some   side  wise   motions.      Some- 


BITING,    CHEWING,    LICKING.  447 

times  it  happens  that  the  nipple  does  not  enter  the 
mouth,  but  the  child  sucks  the  skin  near  by;  which 
proves  the  want  of  a  right  understanding,  even  as  late  as 
the  third  week. 

The  sense  of  smell,  though  assisting,  is  less  active  than 
the  sense  of  sight,  which  is  easily  demonstrated  on  chil- 
dren who  are  blindfolded,  or  on  those  born  blind.  The 
sense  of  touch  likewise  plays  an  important  part  in  con- 
nection with  sucking  from  the  very  first.  Sucking  is 
only  performed  on  such  objects  that  are  placed  in  his 
mouth  which  are  not  too  large,  too  rough,  too  hot  or  too 
cold,  too  strong,  bitter,  sour,  or  salt  in  taste.  Hungry 
children,  from  the  beginning,  suck  their  own  fingers. 
Even  when  not  hungry,  they  like  to  place  them  in  their 
mouth,  especially  when  teething.  Not  less  instinctive 
than  sucking  is  biting.  At  ten  months  old,  my  child  did 
not  any  longer  suck  the  finger  placed  in  his  mouth,  but 
always  bit  it.  At  seventeen  weeks  he  already  distinctly 
bit  it,  and  held  objects  fast  between  the  toothless  gums. 
At  eleven  and  twelve  months  old,  the  child  caught  my 
hand,  carried  it  to  his  mouth  and  bit  it  till  it  pained,  and 
he  did  so,  too,  to  the  fingers  of  strangers,  putting  them 
in  his  mouth  himself.  He  also  tried  to  bite  a  massive 
cube  of  glass.  AVhen  ten  months  old,  he  had  learned 
without  instruction  to  break,  with  his  four  teeth,  pieces 
of  bread,  and  afterwards  to  swallow  them;  and  anything 
reachable,  if  possible,  was  bitten  by  him.  Before  having 
the  first  tooth,  he  made  motions  of  chewing,  which  were 


448  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

aided  by  giving  him  a  crust  of  bread.  The  accumulation 
of  blood  in  the  jaws  before  the  cutting  of  the  teeth,  at 
the  end  of  the  first  three  months,  with  the  coming  of 
saliva,  creates  unpleasant  sensations.  That  the  toothless 
nursling,  who  never  had  an  object  in  his  mouth  to  be 
chewed,  accomplishes  the  perfect  motion  of  mastication 
at  once,  demonstrates  clearly  the  fact  that  the  functions 
of  chewing  and  the  necessary  nerve  muscles  are  set  in 
activity  without  previous  preparation,  and  are  purely 
inherited,  nay,  truly  instinctive.  Another  movement, 
decidedly  original,  and  seemingly  exercised  by  all  nurs- 
lings, is  the  gritting  of  the  teeth.  When  nine  months 
old,  it  gives  the  child  great  pleasure  to  grit  one  of  the 
upper  and  one  of  the  lower  incisors  against  each  other, 
so  as  to  be  heard  at  a  distance  of  one  meter.  The  nurs- 
ling seems  to  be  astonished  that  his  teeth  follow  each 
other  in  quick  succession.  He  performs  quite  comical 
movements  with  his  mouth,  pushes  both  his  lips  far  out, 
and  makes  some  gymnastic  evolutions  with  his  tongue 
without  making  any  sound.  Not  less  instinctive  seems 
the  act  of  licking.  If  this  wrere  not  inherited,  how  could 
the  newly  born  child  lick  sugar?  I  have  seen  that  a  child 
two  or  three  days  old  licked  milk  with  not  less  skill  than 
at  seven  months.  At  this  latter  period,  not  only  are  all 
objects  which  he  grasps  touched  with  his  tongue,  but  also 
the  lips  of  his  mother,  in  kissing  her.  All  the  movements 
of  the  nursling,  referred  to  as  sucking,  biting,  smacking, 
chewing,  gritting,   licking,   must  be  considered  as  typi- 


THE  HOLDING  UP  OF  THE  HEAD.         449 

cully  instinctive  motions.  Every  movement  is  useful, 
even  the  gritting  with  the  first  teeth,  which  familiarizes 
the  child  with  them,  and  these  are,  therefore,  inherited 
and  unconscious  actions. 

THE  HOLDING  UP  OF  THE  HEAD. 

All  newly  born  children,  all  chickens  just  leaving  their 
shell,  and  birds  are  unable  to  carry  their  heads  erect. 
The  head  falls  either  to  the  front,  to  the  right  or  left,  and 
even  sometimes  to  the  back.  In  this  respect,  the  help- 
lessness of  the  child  is  not  greater  than  that  of  the  chick, 
which  learns  in  a  few  hours  to  master  the  necessary  mus- 
cles, while  the  child  needs  several  weeks  to  do  so.  This 
muscular  activity  is  especially  adapted  for  observing  the 
growth  of  the  will  of  the  child.  The  weakness  of  the 
muscles  cannot  be  regarded  as  the  cause  of  the  inability 

I  to  balance  the  head,  because  other  movements  of  the  head 
are  quickly  performed.  At  the  end  of  the  first  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  second  week,  I  saw  the  nursling,  in 
taking  the  breast,  make  violent  side  wise  movements  of 
the  head,  similar  to  the  young  guinea-pig,  calves,  and 
fowls  and  other  animals  when  sucking ;  but  in  the  course 
of  the  first  week,  not  a  single  trace  of  an  effort  to  balance 
the  head  could  be  discovered.  When  eleven  weeks  old, 
it  hung  not  quite  so  loose,  when  the  child  was  placed  in 
a  sitting  position.  On  the  contrary,  the  head  was  for 
some  moments  balanced,  though  very  imperfectly.  At 
twelve  weeks  old,  the  head  fell  in  the  same  way  in  all 


450  CONSCTOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

directions,  and  was  only  momentarily  balanced,  but  a 
daily  improvement  was  shown  in  holding  the  head 
straight.  (American  children  develop,  seemingly,  much 
more  quickly.)  At  the  thirteenth  week,  the  head  fell 
seldom,  even  when  perfectly  free,  and  was  quite  well  bal- 
anced at  fourteen  weeks  old.  In  another  child,  at  the 
twenty-first  week  the  head  fell  back  very  seldom  when 
carried  erect,  and  by  the  sixteenth  week  the  falling  over 
ceased  entirely.  The  holding  up  of  the  head  was  there- 
with assured  for  life.  With  this  important  advance  a 
strong  will  is  undoubtedly  connected.  The  first  contrac- 
tion of  these  muscles  in  balancing  the  head  is  unconscious, 
neither  reflex  nor  instinctive,  but  impulsive.  The  use 
of  this  contraction  is  not  known  to  the  nursling,  but 
the  sensational  effects  of  these  muscles  are  different  from 
the  sensations  of  other  muscles  by  the  pleasant  results, 
making  the  act  of  seeing  and  nursing  more  comfortable, 
therefore  he  learns  to  enjoy  them.  Among  the  different 
positions  of  the  head,  the  upright  one  appears  the  most 
advantageous,  and  the  process  of  accomplishing  it  is  called 
an  act  of  will.  Adults  drop  their  heads  when  falling 
asleep  in  a  sitting  position.  Their  will  vanishes  with 
their  wakefulness.  It  requires  a  certain  continued  exer- 
tion of  will  to  balance  the  head  which  the  newly  born 
child,  even  when  awake,  does  not  possess.  Therefore 
we  are  justified  in  referring  the  distinct  act  of  will  to  that 
time  when  the  head  does  not  fall.  This  happened  in  my 
child  when  sixteen  weeks  old.     R,  Demme  observed  one 


THE  HOLDING  UP  OF  THE  HEAD.         451 

hundred  and  fifty  children,  and  found  that  some  very 
strong  nurslings  balance  their  heads  towards  the  end  of 
the  third  month  and  at  the  first  half  of  the  fourth  month. 
Some  feeble  children  did  not  accomplish  this  act  before 
the  fifth  or  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  month.  I  am 
unable  to  support  the  statement  of  Heyfelder  that  chil- 
dren at  the  sixth  and  eighth  week  attempted  to  hold 
their  heads  erect. 

There  are  also  statements  as  to  the  first  efforts  of  the 
nursling,  when  lying  straight  down  or  keeping  its  foetal 
position,  to  turn  himself  to  the  other  side.  One  child 
did  not  accomplish  this  till  four  months  old,  then  with 
great  effort.  When  I  placed  my  own  boy,  nine  or  ten 
months  old,  face  downwards  on  a  cushion,  the  unusual 
position  seemed  very  uncomfortable.  The  child  very 
awkwardly  turned  himself  without  any  assistance  to  the 
other  side,  so  that  after  a  few  minutes  he  lay  again 
on  his  back.  Something  similar  occurred  at  the  sixth 
month. 

The  child  placed  on  a  cushion,  with  his  face  downwards, 
propped  himself  up  by  his  arms,  and  by  turning  his 
head,  without  crying,  tried  to  change  his  position  to  a 
more  comfortable  one.  This  does  not  prove  an  act  of 
will. 

At  the  first  quarter  of  the  year  no  conscious  movement 
can  happen. 

Newly  born  children  are  unable  to  turn  their  heads 
or   uncover   their   faces    when    covered   with   the    hand. 


452  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

They  cry  and  move  about  aimlessly,  so  that  it  is  difficult 
to  tell  whether  the  position  is  pleasant  or  not.  Some 
remain  quite  motionless,  as  I  also  observed  in  newly  born 
animals. 

LEARNING   TO   SIT  AND   STAND. 

The  first  successful  efforts  to  sit  alone  are  by  Ploss 
dated  at  the  fourth  month,  by  Sigismund  from  the  seven- 
teenth to  the  twenty-sixth  week.  Heyfelder  states  that 
strongly  developed  children  are  able  to  sit  fully  upright 
at  the  fifth  or  sixth  month.  R.  Demme,  on  the  other 
hand,  finds  that  strong  nurslings  were  able  to  sit  en- 
tirely free  for  several  minutes,  without  any  violent 
efforts  of  their  muscular  strength,  at  the  end  of  the 
seventh  and  the  bemnnino:  of  the  eighth  month.  Chil- 
dren,  moderately  strong,  did  this  only  at  the  ninth  or 
tenth  month,  feeble  ones  not  before  the  eleventh  or 
twelfth  month.  With  my  own  strong  and  healthy  boy 
the  first  effort  succeeded  astonishingly  well  at  the  four- 
teenth week.  He  was,  however,  given  a  position  well 
supported  at  the  back,  —  an  artificially  performed  act  of 
sitting.  At  twenty-two  weeks  old,  he  lifted  himself  up 
into  a  sitting  position,  without  trying  to  grasp  my  face ; 
but  not  before  the  thirty-ninth  week  could  he  sit  alone, 
and  then  not  without  support,  though  sitting  gave  him 
great  pleasure.  Even  in  his  little  carriage,  he  needed 
support  at  the  fortieth  week.  His  efforts  to  keep  his 
balance  gave  him  an   unfailing  amusement.     Finally,  at 


LEARNING   TO   SIT   AND   STAND.  453 

forty-two  weeks  old,  he  sat  with  his  back  straight  in 
his  bath,  also  in  his  carriage,  where  dress,  covers,  and 
cushions  greatly  facilitated  his  equilibrium.  The  more 
difficult  sitting  was  in  the  bath-tub,  with  its  smooth 
sides.  This  demanded  his  concentrated  attention.  As 
long  as  he  was  not  disturbed,  he  did  not  fall  to  the  side. 
He  gained  daily  more  assurance  in  maintaining  his  balance, 
so  that  in  a  few  days  he  was  able  to  sit  a  whole  minute 
without  any  support.  From  the  twelfth  month,  sitting 
became  a  life  habit. 

At  tho  beginning,  there  is  a  peculiarity  which  is  also 
observed  with  apes,  as  Lauder  Brunton  says,  viz.,  a 
turning  of  the  soles  of  the  feet  inwardly  when  left  freely 
playing  on  the  floor,  —  a  habit  caused  very  likely  by 
the  position  of  the  legs  before  birth.  Every  child,  when 
undressed,  and  left  perfectly  free  in  a  warm  bed,  will 
assume,  long  after  birth,  a  position  similar  to  that  in 
the  uterus,  with  closely  drawn-up  legs  and  bent  arms. 
The  different  kinds  of  chairs  and  stools  for  children  are 
well  described  in  H.  Plos's  illustrated  book,  "The 
Small  Child,  from  the  Carrying  in  Arms  to  its  First  Step." 
These  chairs  are  more  serviceable  to  the  parents  than  to 
the  child  ;  they  are  even  injurious  when  applied  too  early. 
It  is  an  important  orthopedic  and  pedagogic  rule  not  to 
urge  the  child  to  a  sitting  position  till  by  his  own  efforts 
by  grasping  at  something,  or  without  help,  he  can  lift  up 
the  upper  part  of  his  body ;  in  other  words,  not  to  urge 
him  to  sit  until  he  himself  desires  to  do  so. 


454  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

At  eleven  months  my  child  could  stand  without  any 
support,  and  was  able  even  to  stamp  with  his  feet, 
but  he  did  not  feel  quite  safe,  and  only  when  protect- 
ing chairs  or  arms  were  near  was  the  upright  position 
long  maintained.  At  a  year  old  he  still  needed  a 
support  at  his  back  for  a  lengthy  standing..  At  the 
beginning  of  the  second  year  he  could  stand,  and  by 
continual  efforts  was  soon  able  to  walk,  thereby  be- 
coming an  independent  reality.  A  little  girl,  who  sat 
for  the  first  time  at  nineteen  weeks  old,  was  able 
to  stand  without  help  at  eleven  months,  while  her 
sister  did  the  same  at  ten  months.  R.  Demme  found 
that  strong  children  stand  and  walk  with  very  little 
support  when  from  thirty-five  to  thirty-eight  weeks 
old,  but  that  they  could  not  stand  two  or  three  min- 
utes at  a  time  before  the  forty-fifth  or  forty-eighth 
week. 

The  statements  of  several  observers  show  that  this 
time  differs  greatly ;  the  earliest  attempts  observed  be- 
ing four  months,  the  latest  twelve  months,  the  efforts 
being  induced  by  the  experiments  of  the  parents  or 
the  imitation  of  brothers  and  sisters.  Want  of  muscu- 
lar strength,  different  nourishment,  neglect,  and  want  of 
comfort  affect  the  whole  process.  The  difference  of  the 
statements  may  be  explained  by  the  views  of  the  ob- 
servers. The  attempt  to  sit  or  stand  is  very  different 
from  the  act  itself.  This  difference  is  very  often  over- 
looked. 


s 


LEARNING   TO   WALK.  455 

LEARNING   TO    WALK. 

Learning  to  walk  seems  quite  mysterious,  as  there  is 
no  reason  for  the  alternate  bending  and  stretching  of 
the  legs  in  the  first  upright  position  of  the  nursling. 
The  possibility  of  learning  to  walk  depends  on  the  child 
who  is  held  upright  repeating  the  motion  of  setting 
down  and  lifting  its  feet.  Similar  flexions  and  exten- 
sions  take   place  when   lying  in   bed  or  in  a  bath-tub. 

The  regular  bending  and  stretching  which  happens 
some  months  before  the  first  successful  attempts  at 
walking,  when  the  child  is  held  on  the  floor  and  pushed 
forward,  is  a  different  thing.  It  is  an  instinctive  act. 
If  children  left  entirely  to  themselves  could  keep  alive, 
they  would  undoubtedly  gain  in  time  an  upright  walk, 
but  at  a  much  later  period,  for  the  control  of  the  sur- 
roundings by  eye  and  ear  greatly  favors  the  process. 
In  our  nurseries,  learning  to  walk  is  in  most  cases 
attempted  too  early,  and  with  too  much  trouble. 

In  short,  we  act  against  a  gradual  growth  of  strength 
the    bones.     Children's    walking-chairs    and  walking- 


baskets,  intended  to  aid  early  attempts,  are  to  be  con- 
demned as  being  the  cause  of  crooked  legs.  Creeping, 
the  child's  natural  training  school  for  walking,  is  in  most 
cases  not  favored,  though  it  should  be  recognized  as  a 
chief  aim  in  mental  development.  On  account  of  free- 
dom of  movement,  the  power  to  reach  a  desired  object, 


456  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

a  creeping  child  than  one  that  cannot  move  without 
support.  Only  prejudice,  even  superstition,  makes  the 
mother  so  eagerly  prevent  the  creeping,  perhaps  on 
account  of  the  greater  trouble  in  following  the  child's 
movements.  For  the  normal  mental  development  of 
the  child  under  one  year  old,  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of 
indifference  whether  it  is  kept  for  hours  in  a  basket 
wrapped  in  shawls,  tied  to  a  chair,  or  allowed  to  roam 
about  perfectly  freely,  on  a  carpet  in  a  large  room  or 
in  summer  out  of  doors.  When  the  child  should  creep 
for  the  first  time  is  very  difficult  to  say,  because  in 
most  cases  he  is  hindered  in  performing  this  act.  The 
age  differs  even  among  children  of  the  same  family, 
depending  on  the  nourishment,  and  consequently  greater 
or  less  solidity  of  the  bones,  strength  of  muscles,  and 
desire  for  motion.  Some  children  do  not  creep  at  all. 
The  kind  of  creeping  also  differs.  Sliding  on  both 
knees  is  not  natural  in  European  children.  My  child 
did  regularly  on  one  knee,  using  the  other  foot  as  mo- 
tive power.  Livingstone  observed  Manyuema  children 
in  Africa  cieeping  in  the  same  manner.  Kneeling  is 
learned  long  after  the  child  knows  how  to  walk,  and 
also   to  move  on   its  hands   and  feet. 

On  the  whole,  successful  attempts  at  walking  depend 
on  constitution,  nourishment,  example,  and  mother's  at- 
tention. R.  Demme  describes  a  strong,  intelligent  child 
left  without  assistance.  It  began  to  creep  at  five  months 
old.     Till  the  end  of  the  tenth  month  it  crept  on  its  hands 


LEARNING   TO   WALK.  457 

and  feet  J  ike  an  ape,  and  though  quick  in  motion  made 
no  attempt  at  standing  erect.  At  fourteen  months  it 
began  to  stand,  holding  by  firm  objects,  and  learned  to 
walk  without  assistance  when  between  sixteen  and  eigh- 
teen months  old.  Though  its  general  mental  development 
was  a  normal  one,  it  still  continued  its  experiments  in 
walking  on  its  hands  and  feet.  Standing  without  support, 
trotting  and  walking,  according  to  Preyer,  should  be 
accomplished  from  the  ninth  to  the  eighteenth  month. 
Champney's  child  was  placed,  when  nineteen  weeks 
old,  so  that  its  feet  touched  the  floor,  and  then  was 
pushed  slightly  forward.  The  legs  began  to  move,  as 
required.  Every  step  was  carried  on  without  hesitation 
and  irregularity,  except  that  the  feet  were  lifted  too  high. 
Touching  the  floor  with  one  foot  seemed  to  promote  a 
desire  to  put  the  other  down.  This  trustworthy  state- 
ment of  the  nineteenth  week  supports  my  idea  that  the 
Ict  of  walking  is  an  instinctive  movement.  It  was  at  the 
nd  of  the  twenty-seventh  month  that  my  child  trotted 
W  the  flrst  time  around  the  table,  though  wavering  and 
taggering  a  little,  like  an  intoxicated  person  who  tries  to 
un  but  does  not  fall.  From  this  time,  he  could  walk 
upright ;  at  first,  only  quickly,  almost  trotting,  with 
outstretched  arms  as  if  to  prevent  falling,  afterward 
more  slowly  and  with  safety.  In  ten  weeks  more  the 
child  passed  over  a  threshold  one  inch  high  :  his  knowl- 
edge and  control  of  muscles  not  being  sufficiently  de- 
veloped, he  held  himself  up  and  threw  his  foot  irregu- 


458  Conscious  Motherhood. 

larly,  either  too  high  or  too  far  down.  Preyer  then  refers 
to  the  following  items  about  his  child,  which  may  be  ser- 
viceable in  a  condensed  form.  At  the  twenty-second  and 
twenty-third  weeks,  the  child,  lying  on  his  back,  tries 
to  sit,  and  enjoys  being  placed  upright  on  the  knees  of 
his  nurse.  In  the  twenty-eighth  week  he  places  himself 
erect  on  the  lap  of  his  mother.  In  the  thirty-fifth  week 
he  places  himself  on  the  arm  and  hand  of  his  nurse,  and 
looks  over  her  shoulder.  In  the  forty-first  week,  first 
attempt  at  walking.  The  child  is  held  under  his  arms, 
his  feet  touching  the  floor ;  they  are  moved  to  the  front 
and  to  the  side  regularly.  He  seems  surprised  that  no 
pushing  comes  from  behind,  and  that  nothing  desirable 
appears  in  front.  The  pleasure  in  walking  is  great.  The 
child  sits  without  support. 

In  the  forty-third  week,  whereas,  at  the  beginning,  the 
child  placed  one  foot  indifferently  either  over,  next  to,  or 
before  the  other,  he  now  lifts  his  feet  high,  and  puts  them 
down  without  crossing.  These  motions  give  great  pleas- 
ure. When  he  is  restless,  he  is  very  easily  quieted  by 
being  placed  on  his  feet,  when  he  begins  at  once  to  move 
forward. 

From  the  forty-fifth  to  the  forty-seventh  week  the 
child's  daily  exercises  were  stopped,  in  order  to  see  if 
he  would  forget  what  he  had  learned. 

In  the  forty-seventh  week  he  placed  his  feet  surpris- 
ingly well,  but  did  not  understand  his  muscular  power. 

In  the  forty-eighth  week  he  stood  often  without  any 


LEARNING   TO   WALK.  459 

support,  stamping  his  feet.  He  held  a  chair,  pushing  it 
forward  with  very  little  assistance. 

In  the  forty-ninth  week,  when  left  to  himself  on  a  soft 
comforter,  surrounded  by  cushions,  he  was  not  able  to 
lift  himself  without  assistance,  and  could  not  stand  by 
himself  even  for  a  few  minutes. 

In  the  fiftieth  week,  when  wishing  to  wTalk,  the  child 
could  not  raise  himself  to  his  feet,  when  sitting  or  lying. 

In  the  fifty -third  week,  he  crept  or  rather  slid,  but 
could  not  lift  himself. 

In  the  fifty-fourth  week  he  held  the  chair  by  one  hand, 
while  walking.  He  made  very  slow  progress  in  creep- 
ing, because  he  was  unable  to  perform  the  symmetrical 
stretching  of  arms  and  legs. 

In  the  fifty-seventh  week  the  movements  on  the  knees 
and  hands  were  smooth  and  quick,  but  walking  without 
support  was  impossible. 

In  the  sixtieth  week  the  child  could  lift  himself  from 
the  floor  by  a  chair,  first  on  his  knees,  then  on  his  feet. 
He  stood  free  for  a  few  moments,  but  not  without  hold- 
ing on. 

In  the  sixty-second  week,  no  change.  The  child  did 
not  depend  on  himself,  showing  a  lack  of  self-confidence. 

Iiowever,    when  I  took  my  hand   gradually  away  from 
lis   back,  he    stood   perfectly  alone,   imagining   that    he 
?as  being  held. 
In  the  sixty-third  week  the  child  walks,  still  holding 
with  both  hands   to  the  55    cm.    high   railing   around   a 


460  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

specially  constructed,  upholstered  wooden  square  of  1\  m. 
in  size. 

In  the  sixty- fourth  week  the  child  proved  still  that  he 
wTas  not  lacking  in  co-ordinate  powers,  but  in  self-confi- 
dence, as  he  still  required  assistance,  if  merely  the  pla- 
cing of  his  little  arm  in  that  of  another  person,  and 
stumbled  if  not  so  supported.  Too  much  assistance  and 
urging,  however,  will  retard  the  child's  progress  and 
destroy  his  self-confidence. 

In  the  sixty-sixth  week,  suddenly,  on  the  four  hundred 
and  fifty-seventh  day,  the  child  could  walk  alone.  The 
day  before  he  still  had  to  be  led  by  a  pencil.  Now  he 
ran  around  the  table,  as  already  described.  The  new 
power  delighted  him  ;  he  ran  in  all  directions,  throwing 
his  arms  up  and  down,  laughing  aloud,  and  calling,  T  Ha, 
ha  ! "  from  mere  pleasure  at  success.  The  next  day  he 
stopped  running  suddenly,  stamping  his  feet,  and  moving 
from  one  foot  to  the  other  without  help.  On  the  four 
hundred  and  sixty-first  day  he  could  turn  himself  around 
with  ease,  but  needed  help  in  walking  backwards.  He 
stretched  his  arms  aimlessly  around,  and  was  able  to 
direct  his  attention  to  other  objects  while  walking. 

In  the  sixty-seventh  week,  as  inevitable  as  falling  may 
seem,  it  must  be  stated  that  my  boy  did  not  fall  more 
than  three  times  during  the  first  days  of  walking.  In 
falling  he  stretched  his  arms  straight  forward,  an  instinc- 
tive movement,  as  he' never  saw  a  human  being  fall.  If 
he    fell  when  walking   backward,  no   protective  motion 


LEARNING    TO    WALK.  461 

was  perceived,  neither  do  I  know  whether  the  arms 
were  stretched  out  at  the  first  fall. 

In  the  sixty-eighth  week  the  act  of  walking  no  longer 
demanded  particular  attention.  In  stepping  forward, 
the  child  looked  sideways,  chewed,  swallowed,  laughed, 
called  out;  walking  having  become  mechanical. 

In  the  seventieth  week  the  child  lifted  himself  up  from 
the  floor  and  stood  by  himself. 

In  the  seventy-first  week  lie  was  able  to  pass  over  the 
threshold,  one  inch  high,  holding  by  the  walls. 

In  the  seventy-seventh  week  the  child  ran  around  a 
large  table  nineteen  times,  without  pausing  more  than  five 
seconds  at  a  time,  calling,  "Minima,  bow-wow  ! n 

In  the  seventy-eighth  week  he  was  able  to  pass  the 
threshold  with  something  in  his  hands. 

In  the  eighty-fifth  week,  in  running,  he  leaned  forward 
as  if  aware  of  the  law  of  equilibrium. 

In  the  eighty-ninth  week  he  still  connected  running 
with  a  rhythmic  motion  of  the  arms. 

In  the  one  hundred  and  fourth  week  he  danced  around, 
keeping  time  to  music. 

In  the  one  hundred  and  twentieth  week  he  learned  to 
walk  on  all  fours,  playing  bear.  Before,  he  had  only  slid 
on  hands  and  feet.  He  jumped  until  exhausted,  and 
climbed  up  on  chairs  and  tables. 

In  the  thirtieth  month  he  climbed  up  twenty  five  steps, 
and  ten  days  later  with  both  hands  free. 

In  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-fourth  week  he  per- 


462  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

formed  gymnastic  exercises  with  delight,  climbing,  jump- 
ing, throwing  objects  from  the  window,  and  stones  into 
the  pond.  The  moving  of  objects  on  the  table,  and  any- 
thing within  his  reach,  was  perfectly  original,  and  must, 
therefore,  be  inherited. 

On  the  whole,  all  these  movements  must  be  considered 
wholly  or  partly  instinctive.  They  were  not  the  result 
of  training.  If  they  are  to  be  called  acquired,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  very  little  is  gained  by  imitation.  The 
child  did  not  see  any  one  creep  or  slide,  climb,  jump  or 
throw,  and  he  would  perform  these  acts  if  left  to  him- 
self. The  ancestors  of  mankind  must  have  found  these 
motions  so  useful  that  they  formed  strong  habits,  —  so 
strong  as  to  become  hereditary.  With  this  conclusion,  it 
seems  as  if  these  harmonious  and  most  useful  movements 

—  such  as  those  of  the  eye  muscles  in  the  act  of  seeing, 
which  demand  the  least  effort  in  performing  their  offices 

—  come  by  the  law  of  inheritance. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

IMITATIVE  MOVEMENTS. 

A  most  exact  definition  of  the  period  of  the  first  imita- 
tive movements  is  of  special  psychogenetic  interest,  as 
the  most  insignificant  imitative  movement  proves  the 
activity  of  the  large  brain.  For,  to  imitate,  it  is  not 
only  necessary  to  perceive  with  the  senses,  but  the  con- 
ception must  be  clear  enough  to  enable  one  to  execute 
a  corresponding  movement.  This  complicated  process 
of  three  combined  activities  cannot  be  accomplished  with- 
out the  large  brain,  or  at  least  a  part  of  it,  perhaps  that 
portion  called  in  German  the  rinde.  Certain  perceptions 
and  movements  are  possible  without  the  large  brain, 
but  not  the  creation  of  such  movements  through  these 
perceptions.  (Many  imitative  actions  may  appear  as 
unconscious  acts  of  will,  but  when  the  movement  is 
performed  for  the  first  time,  it  must  be  recognized  as 
a  result  of  the  action  of  will.  The  oftener  an  act  of 
will  is  repeated,  the  more  it  turns  into  a  reflex  motion.) 
In  short,  by  imitating,  the  child  proves  the  existence  of 
his  power  of  will.  When  are  imitations  first  observed? 
If  a  nursling  is  especially  trained  for  the  purpose,  he  can 
imitate  much  earlier  and  more  satisfactorily  than  other- 


464  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

wise.  Such  movements,  indicating  an  early  imitation, 
are  recognized  in  the  pouting  of  the  mouth  and  pushing 
forward  of  the  closed  lips,  which  often  show  concentrated 
attention  in  adults.  The  pushing  forward  of  the  lips 
appeared  in  my  boy  on  the  tenth  day,  when  in  his  bath  a 
candle  was  held  before  him  at  a  distance  of  one  meter. 
When  seven  weeks  old  it  was  repeated  on  perceiving  a 
strange  face,  and  at  ten  weeks  by  bending  and  stretching 
his  legs.  The  child  looked  as  if  wanting  to  say,  oo, 
u.  Apart  from  this  already  familiar  movement,  the 
child  was  unable  to  imitate  this  motion  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions.  Only  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
week,  I  perceived  the  beginning  of  imitation  as  the 
nursling  tried  to  purse  his  mouth,  when  I  did,  close  by 
him.  The  want  of  perfection  in  the  movement  compared 
with  its  completeness,  when  performed  by  his  own  free 
will,  proved  that  it  was  imitative.  After  many  efforts  in 
this  direction,  the  results  were  so  unsatisfactory  that  it 
seemed  to  us  that  rather  accidental  coincidences  had 
brought  them  about.  Only  at  the  seventh  month  could 
the  successful  efforts  to  imitate  the  pursing  of  the  mouth 
and  some  movements  of  the  head  no  longer  be  attrib- 
uted to  accidental  coincidences,  especially  as  the  child 
laughed  when  I  did.  His  attention  to  all  new  move- 
ments made  before  him  was  astonishing.  He  followed 
them  visibly  with  great  interest,  but  in  no  case  did  he 
try  to  imitate.  This  indolence  was  the  more  surpris- 
ing, because  at  the  seventeenth  week  he  imitated  perfectly 


IMITATIVE    MOVEMENTS.  4G5 

the  pushing*  out  of  my  tongue  between  my  lips,  smiling 
before  repeating  the  amusing  movement. 

It  is  hereby  shown  that  motions  were  imitated  at  the 
fourth  month,  which  at  the  seventh  and  even  the  ninth 
month  were  accomplished  very  unsatisfactorily.  At  the 
tenth  month,  however,  correct  imitation  of  manifold 
movement  was  carried  out  in  full  consciousness  ;  as  hand 
and  arm  motions,  beckoning,  for  instance,  and  saying 
w  tata,"  the  child  looked  fully  at  the  person  and  made  the 
corresponding  motion.  The  beckoning  was  a  movement 
acquired  by  imitation  very  early.  I  perceived  it  first  in 
my  child  when  ten  months  old.  When  he  was  carried 
out  of  doors,  his  mother  had  a  habit  of  beckoning  to  him, 
and  he  responded  with  one  arm,  sometimes  with  two,  but 
with  an  expression  showing  that  he  was  not  aware  of  the 
meaning  of  the  act,  so  that  when  I  entered  the  room,  he 
repeated  these  imitated  motions  as  long  as  the  door  was 
in  motion.  They  became  regular,  but  had  no  connection 
with  saying  "  Good  by,"  as  he  also  repeated  them  when 
the  door  of  a  large  wardrobe  was  opened.  The  imitative 
movement  had  entirely  lost  its  character.  After  a  few 
weeks,  these  arm  motions  were  superseded  by  mere 
waving  of  the  hand.  It  seemed  as  if  the  mechanical 
opening  and  closing  of  the  door  had  become  a  represen- 
tation of  saving  "  Good  by.*1  If  I  made  a  beckoning 
ovement  without  opening  the  door,  he  repeated  it  very 
echanically,   though  with    an  expression   of  great  sur- 


**;^ 


04^       0*  THB 

(UiriVBIlSITT 


466  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

ment.  All  imitated  movements  were  not  perceived  so 
clearly  as  acts  of  will.  Entering  a  room  full  of  nurs- 
lings, all  quiet,  it  was  easy  to  see  the  contagious  effects 
of  crying,  because  when  one  began,  several  followed. 
Even  if  one  child  (nine  months  old)  heard  another  cry, 
he  very  soon  followed  the  example.  The  older  the  child 
the  less  was  the  inclination  to  participate,  but  it  was  some- 
times found  in  children  four  years  old,  who  sometimes 
(as  in  hypnotics)  unconsciously  imitate  motions  per- 
formed before  them ;  for  instance,  they  copy  the  man- 
ners of  strangers,  bowing  or  holding  their  arms  as 
they  see  others  do.  A  little  girl,  a  year  old,  playing 
with  her  doll,  imitated  all  the  actions  of  her  nurse, — 
singing  her  dolt  to  sleep,  and  kissing,  bathing,  and  pun- 
ishing it ;  she  also  repeated  the  noises  she  heard  the  dog, 
the  cat,  and  the  sheep  make.  Another  little  girl,  eleven 
months  old,  shook  her  forefinger  when  she  was  threat- 
ened, as  she  saw  others  do ;  brushed  herself  when  she 
looked  at  the  brush  and  comb ;  put  a  spoon  in  her  mouth, 
drank  from  a  cup,  and  sang  a  lullaby  to  her  doll,  and 
imitated  rocking.  She  also  imitated  the  motions  of  sew- 
ing and  writing  (licking  the  pencil).  At  fifteen  months, 
she  nursed  her  doll  exactly  as  she  was  nursed,  imitated 
shaving  her  own  chin,  and  reading  by  running  her  finger 
over  the  book,  modulating  her  voice.  At  eighteen 
months,  she  imitated  singing  and  the  tones  of  the  organ ; 
and  at  nineteen  months,  she  walked  on  her  hands  and  feet, 
saying,  "  Bow-wow,"  after  the  fashion  of  dogs. 


IMITATIVE    MOVEMENTS.  467 

When  twenty  months  old,  she  pretended  to  smoke  by 
placing  her  fingers  on  a  stick,  exactly  as  an  experienced 
smoker  would  do  with  bis  cigar.  Her  younger  sister  did 
not  begin  to  imitate  before  fifteen  months  old ;  while  the 
eldest  of  the  family,  when  nineteen  months  old,  sewed 
two  pieces  of  cloth  together,  using  the  needle  perfectly. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  first  year,  voluntary  imitative 
movements  were  more  skillfully  executed,  but,  needing 
more  complicated  co-ordinations,  they  were  not  so  suc- 
cessful. When  my  boy  was  twelve  months  old,  some 
one  touched  a  glass  with  a  salt-spoon,  producing  a  sound. 
He  at  once  took  the  spoon,  looked  at  it  awhile,  and  used 
it  in  the  same  manner,  but  it  did  not  sound.  Such  an 
entirely  new  imitation  impressed  the  child's  mind  very 
deeply.  He  learned  to  blow  with  his  mouth,  and  was  so 
strongly  impressed  by  this  new  acquirement,  that  it  was 
repeated  while  dreaming ;  showing  that,  however  insig- 
nificant these  motions  seemed  to  the  adult,  they  were 
clearly  stamped  on  the  child's  brain.  It  always  required 
a  few  seconds  before  a  new  or  comparatively  new  motion, 
however  simple,  could  be  imitated.  For  instance,  when 
fourteen  months  old,  my  child  had  a  habit  of  saying  a  8, 
a  e,  while  moving  his  arms  systematically,  but  with  a 
motion  very  different  from  the  previous  beckoning,  and 
he  was  only  able  to  repeat  these  motions  after  a  pause  of 
several  seconds.  This  signified  clearly  that  even  the 
simplest  mental  processes  needed  a  longer  time  for  their 
execution  than  later.     Imitations  are  more  quickly  made 


468  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

when  not  urged,  because  the  child  has  to  begin  them 
himself  before  he  can  put  the  motions  into  effect. 
When  I  hemmed  or  intentionally  coughed  without  look- 
ing at  the  child,  he  would  respond  very  amusingly.  If 
I  asked,  "Did  baby  cough?"  or  if  I  said  to  him  directly, 
"Can  you  cough?"  he  would  do  it,  but  not  so  success- 
fully as  before.  Here  the  child  saw  not  merely  the  imi- 
tation, but  comprehended  the  peculiarity  of  sound.  This 
point  once  reached,  all  imitative  motions  become  more 
complex  and  connect  themselves  more  closely  with  the 
objects  of  daily  experience.  In  the  fifteenth  month  the 
child  learned  to  blow  out  a  candle.  With  cheeks  puffed 
out  and  lips  protruded,  he  blew  from  six  to  ten  times 
without  success,  grasping  after  the  flame,  and  laughing 
when  it  was  extinguished.  His  imitation  was  not  quite 
correct,  but  no  child  that  never  saw  a  light  blown  out 
could  invent  the  idea  of  blowing  it  out.  Neither  reason 
nor  experience  was  able  to  invent.  In  general,  I  ob- 
served that  the  less  complicated  the  motions,  the  more 
easily  were  they  imitated. 

Trying  to  amuse  the  child,  I  opened  and  closed  my 
hand,  and  he  began  to  do  the  same  thing.  The  exact- 
ness of  execution  was  striking  when  compared  with  his 
unskillful  blowing.  It  was  the  result  of  less  complexity. 
However,  as  simple  as  the  bending  of  the  fingers  ap- 
peared, it  required  many  harmonious  impulses  of  nervous 
irritation  and  contraction  of  the  muscular  sinews,  so  that 
their  performance  could  hardly  be  explained  without  the 


IMITATIVE   MOVEMENTS.  469 

influences  of  heredity.  Some  exceptional  motions,  for 
instance,  the  standing  on  the  head,  if  not  done  easily  by 
the  ancestors,  could  not  be  accomplished  exactly  at  the 
first  attempt.  The  opening  and  closing  of  the  hand  were 
a  very  common  motion  among  the  forefathers  of  the  child, 
so  that  the  imitation  of  this  act,  though  slow,  was  well 
done.  The  next  day  it  was  done  more  qufckly,  and  the 
child  observed  his  own  and  my  hand  with  astonishment. 
I  mention  a  few  of  his  motions  at  the  fifteenth  month,  to 
show  the  rapid  progress  which  he  made.  I  placed  a  large 
ring  on  my  head  and  took  it  off  slowly ;  the  child  did  the 
same. 

But  when  a  combi nation  of  the  mouth  and  muscles  and 
an  exhalation  had  to  be  imitated,  many  fruitless  attempts 
were  made  before  one  was  successful,  as  only  a  part  of 
the  complicated  muscular  actions  could  be  perceived, 
while  the  rest  had  to  be  found  experimentally.  For 
instance,  the  child  was  found  unable  to  make  a  sound 
on  a  bugle.     He  took  it  in  his  mouth,  trying  to  imitate 

e  sound  with  his  own  voice.  He  succeeded  and  acci- 
dentally, and  from  that  moment  he  was  master  of  the 
accomplishment  (eighteen  months).  Having  seen  his 
mother  comb  her  long,  dark  hair  before  the  glass,  he 
took  a  hand-glass  and  a  comb,  pushing  the  comb  around 
his  head  where  there  was  no  hair.  He  also  brushed, 
delightedly,  all  of  the  furniture  within  his  reach.  Sev- 
eral times  he  took  a  large  handkerchief  and  put  it 
uround  him  to  made  a  long  train,  looking  proudly  be- 


470  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

• 

hind  him.  He  put  a  collar  around  his  neck  and  tried, 
not  very  successfully,  to  dry  his  hands  with  a  towel  after 
washing  them  very  well  with  soap.  He  afterward  per- 
formed many  complicated  actions,  such  as  tearing  of 
papers,  feeding  of  deer  with  grass,  and  wiping  his  feet 
as  if  his  shoes  were  soiled. 

The  lively  interest  the  child  took  in  all  that  happened 
around  htm  was  surprising.  The  setting  of  the  table, 
making  of  the  lire,  and  the  lifting  and  moving  of  furni- 
ture, induced  him  to  try  to  help.  His  capacity  of  imita- 
tion appeared  almost  like  ambition.  In  the  twenty-third 
month,  many  actions  of  ceremony,  such  as  greeting  and 
bowing,  were  instituted.  The  child  saw  how  an  older 
boy  lifted  his  hat ;  at  once  he  lifted  his  own,  and  put  it 
on  again. 

All  these  later  institutions  were  the  products  of  his 
own  free  will.  They  showed  on  the  one  hand  the  power- 
ful instinct  of  imitation  in  the  second  year,  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  importance  of  this  instinct  in  further 
mental  development.  For  if  the  child  at  this  period  is 
left  to  an  inattentive  or  uncultivated  companionship,  he 
will  not  only  imitate  what  is  injurious  to  him  and  form 
bad  habits,  but  development  in  the  right  direction  will 
be  thwarted. 

Therefore  it  is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  avoid 
undesirable  connections  at  this  period,  and  to  see  that 
all  impressions  are  made  in  the  right  doctrine.  Preyer 
refers  to  the   imitative   movements   of   the   muscles   of 


IMITATIVE   MOVEMENTS. 


471 


speech,  and  the  sound  syllables  and  words,  in  the  third 
part  of  his  book.  First  responses  of  the  nursling  to  the 
speech  of  its  parents  are  not  attempts  at  imitations,  but 
reflex  motions,  such  as  the  crying  after  being  slapped, 
which  first  occurred,  according  to  Sully,  at  the  eighth  or 
ninth  week.  Preyer  states  that  singing  was  one  of  the 
earliest  imitative  movements.  All  imitations  are  based 
at  first  on  the  will  of  the  child,  and  their  exactness  does 
not  depend  entirely  on  the  superior  activity  of  the  brain, 
because  deaf  and  dumb  often  have  a  better  impression  of 
imitation  than  normally  developed  children. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

EXPBESSIVE  MOVEMENTS. 

Facial  expressions  arise  largely  from  imitation.  Those 
born  blind  and  even  those  who  become  so  in  advanced 
years  are  very  deficient  in  facial  expression.  Their  phys- 
iognomy seems  stiff  and  unchangeable,  and  their  facial 
muscles,  when  eating  and  speaking,  are  very  little  used. 
The  happy  face  is  unlike  the  unhappy  one  from  the  first 
day  of  life,  the  intelligent  is  different  from  the  stupid, 
the  attentive  from  the  inattentive  one.  From  the  second 
half-year,  children  begin  to  copy  their  parents.  If  one 
speaks  earnestly  to  a  joyful  child  one  year  old,  it  will  be- 
come serious,  and  vice  versa.  It  would  be  a  too  hasty 
conclusion  to  say  that  all  means  of  acquiring  facial  ex- 
pressions come  from  imitation.  Some  are  of  reflex  origin, 
such  as  gestures,  or,  as  is  often  observed  in  families, 
some  are  instinctive.  (As  each  gesture  is  connected 
with  a  facial  expression,  which  serves  to  increase  the  im- 
pressive powers  of  speech,  they  combine  to  form  mimic 
gestures,  and  must  be  considered  collectively  in  order  to 
separate  the  purely  expressive  muscular  motions  of  the 
nursling,  so  as  to  arrive  at  their  origin.)  As  long  as  the 
child  is  unable  to  speak,  he  makes  himself  understood  in 


EXPRESSIVE   MOVEMENTS.  473 

the  same  way  as  the  higher  animals  do  among  themselves, 
that  is,  through  demonstrative  motions  and  postures  or 
expressive  sounds  to  convey  the  idea  of  complaint,  joy, 
calling,  dependence,  longing,  and  sadness.  The  child  uses 
the  same  expressive  means  in  playing  with  inanimate  ob- 
jects,—  laughing,  pouting,  kissing,  crying,  frowning, 
shaking  the  head,  shrugging  the  shoulders  and  begging 
with  his  hands,  — all  these  actions  performed  in  his  play. 
Nothing  is  more  misunderstood  than  the  first  smile. 
Any  opening  of  the  lips  of  the  baby  is  considered  smil- 
ing, as  if  every  new  contraction  of  the  mouth  in  the 
adult  should  be  thought  to  indicate  a  smile.  Its  inter- 
est shows  simply  a  feeling  of  contentment,  or  a  pleasant 
conception.  Both  must  be  strong  enough  to  produce  an 
irritation  of  the  facial  nerves,  for  no  mere  conception  can 
produce  a  smile,  which  seems  but  the  result  of  pleasant 
conception,  even  when  not  quite  conscious. 

As  before  stated,  the  number  of  sensations  connected 
with  the  feeling  of  contentment  are,  in  the  first  days  of 
life,  very  few.  Neither  has  the  nursling  a  conception, 
for  it  has  no  power  of  conceiving.  |  The  child  pleased 
in  sucking  its  mother's  milk,  and  in  its  warm  bath,  does 
not  smile  at  first ;  it  only  expresses  contentment.  But 
we  may  know  how  easily  such  a  comfortable  condition 
is  manifested  by  a  slight  elevation  of  the  corners  of  the 
mouth.  If  this  can  be  called  smiling,  children  smile 
quite  early  even  when  asleep.  On  the  tenth  day  I  saw 
ly  child,  while  asleep,   after  nursing,   move  his  mouth 


474  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

as  if  smiling,  while  the  little  creases  in  his  cheek  showed 
that  his  closed  eyes  had  a  sweet  expression.  This  was 
frequently  repeated.  On  the  twelfth  day  the  same  thing 
occurred  while  the  child  was  awake,  but  it  was  without 
consciousness.  Only  on  the  twenty-sixth  day,  when  the 
child  had  become  able  to  conceive  its  sensations  and  the 
feelings  of  contentment  derived  from  them,  could  this  play 
of  the  mouth  muscles  be  called  a  conscious  smile.  On 
that  day  the  child  was  well  nursed  and  lay  with  eyes 
wide  open,  or  sometimes  half  closed,  and  with  an  inde- 
scribable expression  of  happiness  on  his  face ;  he  then 
smiled,  turned  his  eyes  toward  the  kind  face  of  his 
mother,  and  for  the  first  time  uttered  a  few  sounds,  ex- 
pressive of  the  happy  situation. 

There  was  no  connection  between  the  conception  of  the 
mother's  face  and  of  her  breast  as  the  source  of  his  happi- 
ness, and  no  imitation  of  smiling,  because  he  first  smiled 
at  inanimate  objects,  such  as  tassels.  Up  to  the  fourth 
month  no  imitative  movements  were  observed.  The 
above-mentioned  early,  as  also  the  later  complete,  smil- 
ing arose  from  a  n^ental  condition  of  contentment,  and 
there  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  consider  this  less  inherited 
than  the  crying  in  pain,  which  no  one  pretends  to  consider 
as  imitation.  Later,  the  child  smiled  when  some  one 
smiled  at  him,  but  he  did  not  always  do  so.  Strangers 
might  speak  ever  so  kindly ;  the  face  of  the  child,  previ- 
ously gay,  now  became  serious  and  astonished.  The  first 
imitation  of  smiling  in  children  is  not  to  be  regarded  like 


EXPRESSIVE   MOVEMENTS.  475 

that  conventional  order  of  greeting,  which  by  education 
is  lowered  to  an  empty  formality  in  adults.  The  origi- 
nal smiling,  the  satisfaction  at  new  and  pleasant  feelings, 
continued  in  sleep.  A  bright  glance  of  the  eye,  lively 
motions  of  the  hands  and  feet,  are  to  be  regarded  as 
signs  of  a  child's  happiness.  Consequently,  conscious' 
ness  of  the  first  smiling  varies  greatly,  since  it  includes 
the  first  imitation  of  a  smile.  Heyfelder  says  this  occurs 
in  the  fourth  week  ;  Champney,  in  the  sixth  or  eighth 
week  ;  Darwin,  in  the  seventh  to  ninth  ;  and  Sigismund,  in 
the  tenth  week.  These  differences  of  opinion  are  based 
on  the  nature  of  the  occasion.  One  child  smiles  at  his 
own  picture  in  the  twenty-seventh  week,  another  in  the 
tenth  week,  my  own  child  in  the  seventeenth  week. 
Then  on  the  one  hundred  and  sixteenth  day  it  was  more 
a  laugh  than  a  smile,  which  surprised  me,  as  on  the  one 
hundred  and  thirteenth  day  he  looked  attentively  without 
a  smile  of  satisfaction.  In  some  cases,  smiling  results 
from  the  pleasure  at  the  conscious  conception  producing 
the  smile  ;  in  others,  from  the  conception  of  pleasure  in 
taste,  or  soft,  warm,  or  musical  impressions.  When  the 
child  does  not  feel  well  or  is  hungry  he  cannot  smile,  and 
this  should  be  carefully  remembered.  From  smiling  to 
laughing  is  but  one  step,  laughing  being  only  a  stronger  or 
a  loud  smile.  The  first  laughing  at  a  pleasant  sensation 
is  very  different  from  that  of  the  developed  consciousness 
when  perceiving  something  comical,  for  this  occurs  later, 
in  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth  week.     Plinius   savs  that 


476  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

before  the  fortieth  day  no  child  laughs.  I  observed  a 
perceptible  laughing,  accompanied  by  a  sound,  on  the 
twenty-sixth  day,  caused  by  motions  of  a  curtain.  It 
was  the  sound  that  attracted  my  attention.  It  was  re- 
peated on  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  eighth  weeks,  when  looking 
at  swinging  colored  objects,  or  on  hearing  the  piano.  It 
was  not  till  the  ^ixth  or  ninth  week  that  the  child's  laugh- 
ing on  seeing  its  mother's  face  gave  a  sign  of  higher  joy 
at  a  recognized  pleasant  expression.  But  the  laughing 
when  we  nodded  at  him  or  sang  to  him  was  much  more 
expressive,  and  was  afterwards  accompanied  by  the  quick 
lifting  and  falling  of  the  arms,  a  sign  of  the  highest  pleas- 
ure. In  the  eighth  month,  when  playing  with  his  mother, 
his  laughing  became  loud  and  continued,  giving  a  pecul- 
iarly joyful  impression  to  his  surroundings. 

Objects  falling  were  observed  attentively  and  followed 
by  loud  laughter  in  the  ninth  month  at  the  new  sounds, 
and  in  the  thirteenth  month  he  laughed  at  his  attempts 
to  stand  without  support.  When  a  year  old,  the  act  of 
laughing  seemed  to  be  conscious  and  understood.  He 
grasped  laughingly  at  his  image  in  the  looking-glass.  He 
laughed  when  others  laughed,  and  showred  a  self-reliant, 
crowing  laugh.  Cunning  laughing  I  did  not  observe 
before  the  second  year ;  spiteful  laughter  and  shedding 
tears  when  laughing  I  have  not  observed  in  children 
under  four  years  old.  It  may  be  said  that  both  smiling 
and  laughing  are  original  expressions,  as  observed  in  the 
first  months  of  life,  as  they  are  not  at  first  produced  by 


THE    PURSING   OF   THE   LIPS.  477 

imitation,  or  intended  to  express  pleasure  even  when 
asleep.  The  reason  why  smiling  is  expressed  in  this 
peculiar  manner  by  moving  the  lips,  raising  the  corners  of 
the  mouth,  making  sounds,  shedding  tears,  and  dancing 
of  the  eye,  is  unknown ;  it  must  result  from  inheritance. 
Darwin  says  very  truly  that  smiles  do  not  come  as  early 
as  crying,  because  the  latter  is  more  useful  to  the  child. 
Laughing  arises  from  imitation  more  than  from  crying. 
It  seems  as  if  it  belonged  to  intelligent  animals;  for  in- 
stance, to  a  dog,  which  distends  the  corners  of  his  mouth, 
and  with  beaming  eyes  bounds  joyfully  into  the  air.  I 
once  had  a  Siberian  dog  that  laughed  in  this  way.  That 
apes  laugh  is  a  well-known  fact.  All  of  these  observa- 
tions indicate  the  inherited  tendency  to  laughter.  Apes 
are  not  less  sensitive  to  tickling  than  children,  and  laugh 
when  in  a  gay  mood,  but  Darwin  says  that  tickling  will 
not  make  a  crying  child  laugh. 

THE    PURSING   OF  THE  LIPS. 

A  very  singular  motion  in  both  children  and  adults  is 
the  protruding  of  the  lips  to  indicate  concentrated  atten- 
tion. I  have  seen  old  men,  while  playing  the  piano, 
purse  their  mouths  and  protrude  their  lips  more  than  the 
nursling.  The  child  does  this  when  investigating  any 
new  plaything.  Whatever  causes  this  singular  change  of 
the  mouth,  it  surely  indicates  an  act  of  concentrated 
attention,  but  it  shows  itself  earlier  than  the  power  of 
investigation.     I  once  saw  a  child  in  the  first  hour  of  his 


478  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

life  protrude  his  lips,  and  this,  when  not  connected  with 
the  pursing  of  the  mouth  in  sucking,  must  be  regarded  as 
purely  impulsive.  My  child  did  this  distinctly  on  the 
tenth  day,  when  a  candle  was  brought  near  him  while 
bathing,  and  he  continued  the  motion  till  four  years  old. 
In  sucking,  the  mouth,  like  a  snout,  moves  forwards  and 
backwards. 

The  movements  of  the  tongue,  which  many  children 
make  while  learning  to  write,  I  observed  much  later. 
The  mere  observance  of  objects  produced  the  pursing 
of  the  mouth  from  the  sixth  to  the  tenth  month ;  after 
this,  it  occurred  only  when  handling  and  turning  objects 
under  his  observation,  or  when  following  the  motions 
of  an  object,  or  in  opening  and  closing  boxes,  in  empty- 
ing and  filling  them,  when  stringing  buttons  or  playing 
with  them.  The  pursing  of  the  mouth  differs  greatly 
from  pouting  it.  The  protruded  lips  of  a  dissatisfied 
child,  like  those  of  a  chimpanzee  which  I  observed  in 
a  zoological  garden,  and  which  is  described  by  Darwin, 
is  seen  much  later  in  life.  What,  then,  precedes  them? 
It  must  be  that  facial  irritations  were  inherited.  They 
are  not  imitated ;  my  child  never  saw  this  pursing  of 
the  mouth,  and  was  unable  to  imitate  before  the  fifteenth 
week.  If  it  was  inherited,  it  is  referable  to  ancestry. 
All  animals  concentrate  their  first  attention  on  their  food. 
Their  first  investigators  are  the  lips,  feelers,  snout,  or 
tongue.  This  examination  of  the  food  belongs  to  the 
activity  of  the  mouth  and  its  aids.     Especially  in  suck- 


o 


THE    PURSING   OF   THE    LIPS.  479 

ing,  which  first  awakens  the  attention  of  the  baby,  the 
mouth  is  protruded  ;  afterwards,  when  new  objects  come 
within  the  reach  of  his  grasp,  they  are  carried  to  the 
mouth;  because,  at  first,  all  that  interested  the  child, 
its  food,  was  carried  there.  The  conclusion  that  all 
interesting  objects  do  not  belong  to  the  mouth  is  shown 
by  the  experience  that  many  beautiful  objects  do  not 
belong  there. 

Another  pursing  of  the  mouth  is  perceived  in  kissing. 
This  belongs  to  the  later  acquired  motions,  which  are 
seemingly  not  inherited.  Among  some  human  races  it 
might  be  called  conventional.  How  little  the  child 
understands  the  meaning  of  kissing,  though  he  has  been 
kissed  by  his  friends  thousands  of  times,  is  shown  by 
many  observations.  A  little  girl,  fourteen  months  old, 
kissed,  as  a  purely  affectionate  expression,  so  that  it  could 
be  heard,  tenderly  stroking  the  cheeks  or  hands  of  her 
mother,  when  wishing  to  get  something  or  to  please.  In 
the  fifteenth  month  the  child  kissed  her  mother  twelve 
times  a  day,  without  being  requested  to  do  so.  Her 
sister,  unrequested,  at  fifteen  months  old,  kissed  her 
mother's  hand  eight  times  in  succession.  The  two  sisters 
often  kissed  each  other  for  amusement  when  from  one  and 
a  half  to  three  and  a  half  years  old.  Another  baby  girl 
responded  to  a  kiss  in  her  tenth  month  without  hesitancy. 

n   the   eleventh  day,  when  kissed  by  his   mother,  my 
boy  took  rier  lips  and  sucked  them  ;  on  the  thirty-second 

ay  the  child  did  not  suck  the  lips  when   kissed,  but 


• 


480  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

showed  pleasure  at  the  caress.  In  the  thirty-third  week 
the  child,  when  kissed,  did  not  resist,  and  gave  no  signs 
of  returning  it,  though  there  was  no  lack  of  affection. 

In  the  twelfth  month  the  opening  of  the  mouth  in 
kissing  was  imitated.  In  the  thirteenth  month  the  child 
had  no  conception  of  the  meaning  of  a  kiss,  the  caress 
not  pleasing  the  child,  as  it  always  turned  away  its  head 
when  kissed.  In  the  fifteenth,  the  words,  "Give  a  kiss," 
were  followed  by  an  approach  of  the  head  and  move- 
ment of  the  lips,  which  showed  the  understanding  of 
the  words  but  not  of  the  act.  In  the  nineteenth  month 
if  strangers  desired  a  kiss,  he  held  back. 

The  twentieth  month,  in  touching  the  cheeks  of  others 
with  his  face,  the  child  showed  that  the  approach  seemed 
to  him  the  more  important  part.  When  told  to  kiss,  he 
also  bent  his  head  toward  the  speaker,  without  opening 
his  mouth.  In  the  twenty-third,  the  meaning  of  a  kiss 
as  a  sign  of  favor  was  known  to  the  child,  but  he  was  as 
exclusive  in  kissing  as  in  offering  his  hand.  In  the 
thirty- fourth ,  a  feeling  of  gratitude  was  awakened.  On 
receiving  kindness,  the  child  would  kiss  with  a  charm- 
ingly grateful  expression,  but  without  speaking.  This 
signified  that,  in  the  beginning,  the  lips  of  the  mother 
were  only  regarded  like  any  other  object.  Then  they 
were  licked  in  doglike  manner.  Next  a  kiss  was  en- 
dured, then  refused,  and  finally  given  as  a  sign  of  grat- 
itude and  affection,  and  this  from  a  boy  neither  trained 
nor  very  affectionate.     This  long  period  of  learning  to 


THE   PURSING   OF   THE   LIPS.  481 

kiss  proves  fully  what  little  foundation  the  presumption 
has,  that  kissing  is  to  be  regarded  as  an  inherited  pecul- 
iarity of  mankind.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  newly 
born  children  do  not  weep  nor  shed  tears,  however  much 
they  may  cry  later ;  children  cry  and  weep  at  the  same 
time,  and  are  able,  in  fact,  to  cry  without  shedding  tears, 
and  still  later  they  may  shed  tears  and  not  cry.  The 
time  of  the  first  shedding  of  tears  is  surprisingly  differ- 
ent in  children.  Darwin  observed  that  in  two  cases  the 
eyes  were  found  wet  with  tears  for  the  first  time  at  the 
end  of  the  eighth  or  ninth  wTeek. 

Not  weeping  but  sobbing  appears  still  later,  with  other 
causes  of  weeping,  as  stubbornness,  grief,  rage,  but  do 
not  affect,  as  they  do  not  exist  in,  any  young  child,  while 
pain,  which  exists  from  the  first,  is  expressed  by  shedding 
of  tears.  However,  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  chil- 
dren of  two  or  three  years  old  shed  tears  at  some  un- 
pleasant impression  easier  than  those  of  six  months  or  a 
year  old. 

As  regards  crying  and  weeping,  there  are  two  charac- 
teristics of  the  explanation  and  definition  which  has  given 
much  trouble  ;  these  are,  the  drawing  down  the  corners 
of  the  mouth  and  frowning. 

Of  the  peculiar  compression  or  depression  of  the  cor- 
ners of  the  mouth  directly  following  an  act  of  crying  and 
weeping,  I  spoke  already,  in  describing  the  unpleasant 
feeling  of  childhood. 

Frowning  is  invariably  connected  with  weeping.     The 


482  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

eye,  when  closely  pressed  together,  shows  discontented 
feelings,  and  it  should  be  understood  as  such.  I  ob- 
served it  in  my  boy  the  first,  second,  seventh,  and  tenth 
days,  as  in  some  apes,  without  any  outward  cause. 
Otherwise,  frowning  is  not  the  same  as  in  adults.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  consider  frowning  as  important  to  ex- 
pression, though  it  comes  very  often  with  crying,  but 
sometimes  without  it.  I  observed  on  my  own  boy  vertical 
and  horizontal  lines  when  nine  weeks  and  seven  months 
old. 

The  frowning,  as  a  mark  of  astonishment,  I  saw  in  the 
twentieth  month,  in  its  full  characteristic,  namely,  cross- 
fold,  which  Darwin  ^scribes  to  the  long-inherited  expres- 
sive motions  (contraction  of  the  corrugators)  of  closing 
the  eyes  to  protect  them,  which  had  finally  associated 
itself  with  the  conception  of  unpleasant  feelings. 

THE   SHAKING   OF  THE   HEAD,   AND   NODDING. 

The  shaking  of  the  head,  as  a  sign  of  refusal  or  the 
reverse,  is  used  by  many  children  without  any  instruction 
or  imitation.  The  forerunner  of  this  expression,  indicat- 
ing dislike  and  disgust,  prior  to  refusal,  is,  according  to 
Darwin,  the  turning  aside  of  the  head  in  refusing  food, 
either  the  breast  or  the  bottle.  In  the  same  manner  the 
head  is  early  turned  towards  a  window  and  after  moving 
objects,  and  later  from  interest  in  new  sounds.  I  observed 
in  the  first  week  during  nursing  a  kind  of  wobbling  move- 
ments  of  the   head.     On  the  eighth  day  they  seemed 


THE  SHAKING  OF  THE  HEAD,  AND  NODDING.    483 

to  indicate  seeking ;  but  they  were  unchanged  on  the 
twenty-seventh  day,  when  the  opening  of  the  bottle  was 
directly  carried  to  his  mouth,  showing  that  it  is  not  an 
acquired  movement,  but  an  instinct.  Many  animals  wob- 
ble with  their  head  when  sucking,  like  man.  It  seems, 
therefore,  an  inherited,  not  a  reflex,  motion.  Numer- 
ous side  motions  of  the  head  are  shown  from  the  fourth 
day,  supplemented  by  the  turning  of  the  head.  My  child 
refused  to  take  the  left  breast  at  the  fifth  day,  because 
it  was  inconvenient ;  it  did  so  by  turning  its  head  away 
from  it.  On  the  sixth  day  it  cried ;  on  the  seventh  day 
we  succeeded  in  conquering  its  resistance.  However,  the 
turning  of  the  head  remained  forever  a  sign  of  refusal. 
It  was  always  observed  when  satisfied,  which  never 
would  have  been  the  case  had  it  been  a  reflex  mechanism 
of  reflection.  The  child  clearly  expressed  a  disgust  to- 
wards its  food,  saying,  "  No  more."  Yet  not  before  the 
sixteenth  week  I  observed  similar  motions  to  those  em- 
ployed in  refusing  by  adults.  Nodding  was  still  more  sel- 
dom ;  it  indicated  just  a  little  affirmation,  then  the  side- 
ward motions  of  refusal  seemed  to  be  mere  muscular 
exercises.  After  some  months  the  boy  made  refusing 
motions  with  his  arms,  as  a  person  does  to  whom  an  ob- 
ject becomes  tiresome.  The  child  not  wishing  an  object 
presented  to  him,  lifted  his  arms  side  wise  two  or  three 
times,  turning  his  head  away.  This'  motion  of  refusal  at 
the  age  of  fifteen  months  may  have  been  acquired,  that 
is,  imitated,  as  the  child  may  have  experienced  the  push- 


484  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

ing  away  of  his  own  hands  by  his  nurse ;  and  unquestion- 
ably he  had  gained  sufficient  observation  for  this,  as  with 
a  conception  of  the  idea  of  a  refusal  the  act  of  a  nega- 
tive motion  is  quite  early  connected.  When  my  boy, 
eighteen  months  old,  in  a  rage  tried  to  strike  a  person 
who  refused  to  give  him  a  key  he  asked  for,  he  had  not 
had  an  example  to  imitate,  no  more  than  when  he  threw 
himself  on  the  floor  and  flung  his  arms  and  legs  around 
and  screamed  violently,  just  as  a  chimpanzee  did  to  whom 
an  apple  had  been  refused.  Similar  excesses  were  ob- 
served in  children,  with  their  faces  flushing  at  ten  or 
eleven  months  old. 

The  half-closed  eyelid  when  refusing  was  not  from 
imitation.  I  observed  this  when  my  boy  was  eight 
months  old,  especially  when  meeting  black-dressed 
ladies,  though  they  were  very  kind.  This  he  con- 
tinued till  he  was  thirty  months  old,  showing  that  his 
expression  did  not  indicate  fear,  but  antipathy. 

In  the  eleventh  and  thirteenth  months  he  said,  "No, 
no  " ;  but  an  affirmative  consent  was  riot  expressed  by, 
"Yes,  yes."  Notwithstanding  many  efforts,  this  was  not 
accomplished  till  he  was  fourteen  months  old.  In  the 
sixteenth  month  it  was  correctly  done,  together  with  a 
peculiar  rhythmical  motion  of  the  hand,  which  was  very 
carefully  executed,  indicating  a  conscious  association. 
That  the  nodding  of  the  head  meant  "  Yes "  was  not 
understood  ;  yet  the  negative  "  shaking  "  was  used  when 
sixteen   months  old   for   "No,"   and  "I  do  not  know"; 


BEGGING   WITH   THE   HANDS.  485 

also,  "I  do  not  want  it."  When  four  years  old,  nodding 
of  the  head  indicated,  "Thank  you."  This  is  so  much 
more  surprising,  as  both  these  motions  were  considered 
original.  That  children  make  an  earlier  use  of  their 
voice  than  of  movements  of  their  heads,  does  not  prove 
that  they  are  antagonistic,  but  that  the  refusing  side- 
wise  turning  of  the  head  is  to  be  considered  a  reflex 
instinct,  while  the  later  acquired  affirming  or  consent- 
ing, the  grateful  bending  of  the  head,  are  gestures  of 
unknown  origin. 

THE  SHRUGGING  OF  THE  SHOULDERS. 

At  fifteen  months  old  my  boy  shrugged  his  shoulders 
quickly.  I  thought  the  motion  was  caused  by  uncom- 
fortable clothing,  but  the  tranquil  expression  of  the  face 
did  not  correspond.  In  saying,  "Yes,  yes,"  to  him  and 
nodding,  he  repeated  the  nodding.  This  made  me 
believe  that  the  shrugo-inof  of  the  shoulders  might  "ive 
expression    to    "not  knowing,"  which    proved   to    be  so 

many  cases,  and  it  must  be  therefore  counted  among 
the  many  inexplicable  inherited  expressive  motions  not 
found  in  very  young  children. 

BEGGING  WITH   THE  HANDS. 

This  is  generally  the  first  trained  motion  of  German 
children,  placing  both  hands  together  in  applying  for 
something,  and  one  of  the  first  ideas  the  child  is  led  to 
understand.     It    is  very   early    taught   that   this  simple 


48  G  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

motion  quickens  (he  bringing  of  his  food  in  a  much 
higher  degree  than  crying;  he  therefore  learns  to  make 
this  motion  when  he  desires  something.  At  fifteen 
months  he  had  been  crying  in  vain  for  quite  a  while, 
when  he  suddenly  stopped ;  and  placing  his  hands  in  a 
begging  position,  he  was  attended  to  immediately.  At 
fourteen  and  a  half  months  old,  when  not  crying,  he 
begged  also  by  pushing  forwards  his  little  arms,  sup- 
plementing it  by  producing  some  winning  noises,  espe- 
cially when  he  wished  the  repetition  of  funny  actions. 
For  instance,  when  some  one  put  a  spoon  on  his  nose, 
the  child  laughed  loud,  grasped  for  the  spoon,  looked 
at  it  carefully,  putting  it  from  one  hand  into  the  other, 
and  returned  it  with  an  inexpressible,  begging,  signifi- 
cant sound.  After  the  child  had  fully  learned  to  use 
the  word  "please,"  at  twenty-two  months  old,  the  beg- 
ging position,  that  is,  the  lifting  of  both  hands  placed 
close  together,  did  not  cease.  It  appeared  when  he 
wanted  more  music.  When  the  train  was  stopping,  he 
really  clapped  his  hands.  When  he  had  reached  the 
age  of  twenty-three  months,  it  was  repeated  in  his 
dreams.  The  expression  of  satisfaction  in  clapping  the 
hands  by  adults  may  be  connected  with  the  noise  made  ; 
but  folding  the  hands  in  prayer  as  done  in  churches,  as 
well  as  the  lifting  the  arms  of  the  praying  Moslem,  cor- 
responds with  the  begging  motions  of  the  child,  which 
by  no  means  should  be   educationally  neglected. 

The   child  first   demanded   by  crying,    afterwards   by 


BEGGING  WITH  THE  HANDS. 


487 


• 


stretching,  then  by  placing  its  hands  together.  These 
later  motions  the  educator  uses  for  begging  and  pray- 
ing. The  child  finally  comprehends  the  meaning,  and 
adopts  the  movements.  With  increasing  interest  to- 
wards living  objects,  the  child  repeats  the  movements, 
opens  his  mouth  in  astonishment,  and  stretches  his  arms 
toward  the  object.  At  this  period  it  becomes  difficult 
to  know  if  the  child  wants  to  grasp  or  to  show. 

On  asking  where  is  the  light,  he  will  at  nine  months 
turn  his  head  towards  it ;  but  at  fourteen  months  old  he 
lifts  his  arms,  and  with  wide-open  fingers  points  to  the 
direction.  He  had  separated  the  idea  of  grasping  from 
showing.  It  is  of  greatest  importance  in  the  mental 
development  of  the  child  that  the  pointing  before  the 
first  attempts  of  speaking  should  be  clearly  and  justly 
understood  by  the  child.  A  little  girl  eleven  months 
old,  unable  to  speak,  answered  every  question  unmis- 
takably correctly  by  the  motions  of  her  eyes  and  fingers. 

Later,  pointing  was  used,  as  does  a  deaf-mute.  My 
boy,  twenty-two  months  old,  unable  to  speak,  pointed 
from  the  milk-can  to  the  bottle  with  his  forefinger,  ex- 
pressing his  desire  for  milk.  Why  did  he  use  so  sud- 
denly one  finger,  instead  of  stretching  out  all  five  ? 

How  much  must  the  combination  of  fixing,   opening 

e  mouth,  lifting  the  eyelid,  stretching  the  fingers, 
be  based  on  inherited  co-ordination,  acts  essential  to 
the  acquisition  of  food  to  which  pointing  and  grasping 
are  also  to  aid?     The  child   having  learned   to   see   his 


488  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

outstretched  arms  recognized  as  a  sign  of  wanting  food 
or  wishing  to  change  his  place,  he  stretched  out  his 
arms  longingly,  and  whined  when  tempted  to  desire  other 
objects.  My  child,  when  twenty-two  months  old,  was 
desirous  of  being  placed  at  the  table.  No  one  noticed 
his  desire.  He  went  into  a  corner,  and  with  great  diffi- 
culty he  brought  a  chair  forwards  till  he  had  reached 
the  table,  and  slapped  it  with  his  flat  hand,  and  did  not 
rest  till  it  was  placed  on  the  table.  The  child  thereby 
spoke  clearly  without  the  use  of  words ;  unfortunately, 
in  being  led  to  perform  some  tricks  he  had  been  taught 
(Kunststiicke) ,  he  gained  success,  but  alas,  he  was  also 
led  to  learn  that  he  was  liable  to  mistakes.  With  the 
increasing  power  of  variation  in  voice,  the  child  became 
more  enabled  to  connect  sounds  with  gestures.  At  four- 
teen months,  the  child  connected  the  stretching  of  the 
arms  with  a  sound  of  begging,  and  a  longing  look  with 

Do         O  '  O         O 

a  bent  position,  as  expression  of  a  strong  desire.  The 
increase  of  language  finally  did  away  with  gestures. 
When  he  was  fifteen  months  old,  I  made  three  glasses 
sound  an  accord  by  striking  them  with  a  ring.  The 
child  was  delighted.  I  made  a  pause.  He  took  the 
ring,  but  returned  it,  expressing  by  his  peculiar  sound 
of  "  hae-oe  "  his  desire  for  repetition ;  his  language  was 
fully  comprehensible  without  words.  If  such  language  is 
ignored,  in  fact,  remains  unanswered,  some  lively  children 
will  fall  into  a  perfect  rage,  throwing  themselves  on  the 
floor  and  scream.     This  language  without  words  shows 


BEGGING  WITH  THE   HANDS.  489 

by  position  of  the  body,  the  looks,  the  movement  of 
the  finger,  the  very  character  of  his  nature  and  will. 
For  example,  at  fourteen  months  old  his  affections  were 
expressed  by  putting  his  hands  softly  on  shoulder  or 
cheek,  not  very  likely  to  have  been  acquired  by  imi- 
tation. Anger  and  disobedience  were  expressed  by  a 
continued  stretching  himself  straight,  as  in  the  eighth 
month,  when  put  to  bed,  he  was  made  ashamed  of  hav- 
ing failed  in  cleanliness.  Pride  in  a  new  baby  carriage 
was  shown  by  a  quite  ridiculous  position,  in  the  nine- 
teenth month ;  jealousy,  pride,  pleasure  in  fighting,  and 
selfishness,  giving  his  childish  face  a  not  less  character- 
istic appearance  than  generosity,  obedience,  or  ambition, 
and  can  therefore  not  be  described  in  their  great  mani- 
foldness.  Not  merely  the  expression  but  the  peculiar 
movements  are  characteristic ;  as  they  are  so  much 
more  visible  and  without  the  intention  to  deceive,  they 
are  true.  It  is  beyond  the  limit  of  this  work  to  follow 
the  connection  of  these  mental  conditions,  the  motives, 
and  the  growth  of  the  power  of  will.  Many  observa- 
tions have  to  be  made  before  we  can  learn  how  far  in- 
fluence of  imitation  and  hereditary  influences  affect  emo- 
tional control  in  inducing  harmonious  conditions  of  feel- 
ing and  character. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

INTENDED  MOVEMENTS. 

Preyer  refers  to  the  combination  of  impulsive,  peri- 
pheric irritation,  the  instinct  of  imitation,  and  of  emo- 
tions as  causes  of  muscular  contractions,  with  which  in- 
tentions and  a  large  number  of  motor  sensations  are  to  be 
experienced  and  connected  and  finally  supplemented  by 
the  activity  of  the  senses  and  reason  to  a  certain  degree, 
before  any  considered  or  free  act  can  be  accomplished. 
He  says  :  "  Therefore  I  cannot  refer  to  any  motion  accom- 
plished by  free  will  in  the  child  before  three  months  old, 
or  even  more ;  there  are  doubts  if  the  child's  motions  are 
not  rather  instinctive,  therefore  inherited  or  reflex,  or 
perhaps  impulsive." 

Early  grasping  movements  with  the  hands,  not  with 
its  feet,  seem  to  indicate  seeking,  and  are,  in  the  same 
degree  as  the  later  plucking  and  scratching  of  the  face 
or  skin,  or  other  objects,  not  conscious,  but  instinctive 
to  the  act  of  grasping.  Even  the  stamping  with  the 
foot,  the  moving  of  the  chair,  the  stiffening  of  its  body 
in  opposition  to  the  laying  down  against  its  will  at  ten 
months  old,  and  still  later  motions  of  throwing,  cannot 
be  ascribed   to  self-conscious  muscular   movements  with 


INTENDED  MOVEMENTS.  49 i 

any  certainty.  Probably  some  play  induces  more  de- 
velopment of  self-conscious  attention  after  the  first  awak- 
ening of  causal  functions.  Eleven  months  old,  my  boy 
happened  to  push  a  spoon  against  a  newspaper,  or  other 
objects,  and  suddenly  changed  them,  giving  the  impres- 
sion of  trying  to  find  out  which  way  the  noise  occurred, 
or  if  continued  when  the  objects  were  laid  aside,  or  if  it 
was  accomplished  by  the  arm.  For  this  reason,  he  kept 
his  arm  still,  to  see  if  the  noise  would  still  go  on. 

The  restless  experiments  of  little  children,  even  of  the 
nursling,  as,  for  instance,  the  rumpling  of  paper,  at  six 
months  old,  are  not  only  useful,  but  not  to  be  replaced 
by  the  intellectual  development  of  the  child.  The  for- 
mation of  will  is  likewise  dependent  on  knowledge  grad- 
ually gained  in  the  discrimination  between  useless  or 
useful  co-ordinate  motions ;  the  utility  of  co-ordinate 
motions  directed  to  a  distinct  aim  or  end  is  thus  learned. 

»is  only  when  the  conception  of  the  motion  and  the 
ect  of  the  motion  are  understood,  that  independent 
self-movements  are  possible.  This  is,  unfortunately,  too 
often  prevented  by  an  early  training,  thereby  making 
those  actions  mechanical  which  should  be  the  result  of 
individual  conception  and  suggestion.  Sometimes  in  the 
second  year  it  is  difficult  to  decide  if  the  child  acts  inde- 
pendently or  not,  as,  when  ten  or  eleven  months  old,  it 
opened  or  closed  a  wardrobe,  and  picked  up  objects  from 
the  floor  and  returned  them.  HowTever,  when  he  put  an 
ear-ring  which  he  had  found,  of  his  own  accord,  on  his 


492  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

ear,  he  knew  that  it  was  from  an  ear  it  had  dropped. 
I  call  this  a  sign  of  conclusion,  reason,  and  will ;  why,  in 
the  mere  making  of  noise  by  opening  or  closing  a  lid, 
and  in  the  tearing  of  newspapers,  the  mere  pleasure  in 
noise  and  motion  and  the  satisfaction  of  the  use  of 
strength  and  will,  was  seen  to  be  active.  But  it  seems 
remarkable  that  my  child,  when  fourteen  months  old, 
opened  and  closed  the  lid  of  a  demijohn  not  less  than 
seventy-nine  times  without  pausing  a  minute ;  the  con- 
centrated attention  proving  the  associated  intellect. 
"What  caused  this  noise?"  would  the  child  have  asked, 
if  able  to  speak ;  as  he  did,  when  he  could  speak,  in 
saying,  "What  makes  it?" 

The  child,  without  the  knowledge  of  language,  could 
think  like  the  intelligent  animal,  with  this  exception,  that 
the  latter  would  not  have  lifted  the  lid  so  often  for  its 
own  instruction.  Doubtless,  long  before  the  acquiring  of 
language,  the  child  is  conscious  of  will,  and  thinks ;  grad- 
ually, after  prolonged  and  incomplete  activity  of  the  co- 
ordinating power  of  conscious  and  unconscious  muscular 
movements,  independent  actions  are  performed.  The 
sensations  of  pleasure  and  displeasure,  such  as  the  pleas- 
ure of  reaching  after  food  or  preventing  some  discomfort, 
determine  mental  development.  They  have  to  be  consid- 
ered as  the  aims  of  a  continual  progressive  evolution  ;  in 
this  sense,  the  successive  development  of  the  child's  will, 
as,  for  instance,  the  grasping  in  the  independent  taking  of 
food,  showing  the  interesting  transition  from  an  incom- 


INTENDED   MOVEMENTS.  493 

plete  co-ordination  to  the  complete  harmonious  move- 
ment of  the  arm,  mouth,  tongue,  throat  muscles.  The 
observations  I  made  on  my  own  child  prove  that  there  is 
ivill  before  the  co-ordination  is  completed.  In  the  fifth 
month,  meat  offered  on  a  fork  was  seized  by  the  hand, 
sometimes  wrongly,  but  once  rightly,  and  slowly  brought 
to  the  mouth.  In  the  eleventh  month  the  child  took 
every  day  a  biscuit  with  his  own  hand  from  the  table,  and 
carried  it  rightly  to  his  mouth.  It  also  bit  pieces  off  and 
chewed  them,  and  drank  from  a  glass.  Eighteen  months, 
he  filled  a  spoon  nicely,  and  carried  it  to  his  mouth. 
When  the  spoon  was  placed  on  the  left  side  of  the  plate, 
he  took  it,  after  a  short  consideration,  in  his  left  hand. 
There  was  no  difference  between  eating  with  the  right  or 
left  hand. 

Twentieth  month,  the  eating  with  the  spoon  improved 
daily  in  safety  and  quickness,  but  he  was  not  quite  able 
to  take  his  food  without  assistance  and  direction,  as  he 
could  not  fill  his  spoon  well,  because  his  attention  was 
not  sufficiently  concentrated.  He  paused  often,  direct- 
ing his  attention  to  any  shining  object  when  in  new  sur- 
roundings. 

After  this,  when  intentionally  left  to  self-help,  the 
child  improved  greatly.  However,  the  foregoing  state- 
ments are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  intention  existed 
before  the  co-ordination  was  perfected.  The  will,  the 
knowledge  of  effect,  the  conception  of  the  whole  move- 
lent,  were  clear  before  it  could  be  carried  out,  as  seen 


494  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

in  gymnastics  and  play.  Preyer  says  :  "  I  could  mention 
numerous  motions,  differing  in  self-conscious  or  instinc- 
tive origin,  especially  after  watching  children's  plays  and 
occupations  from  day  to  day,  from  week  to  week."  But 
I  have  made  already  so  many  detailed  statements,  and 
such  observations  are  so  easily  made,  that  it  seems  un- 
necessary to  multiply  them,  if  only  sufficient  time  is 
taken  by  parents  to  compare  a  few  healthy  children. 

It  seems  desirable  for  non-scientific  students,  and  those 
who  may  have  neglected  this  part  in  the  foregoing  ab- 
stracts of  Preyer,  to  refer  to  the  complication  of  the 
act  of  will,  based,  — 

1.  On  a  clear  conception  of  what  is  desired,  by  the 
power  of  picturing  to  the  mind  the  differences  between 
the  desired  and  other  objects. 

2.  On  a  clear  conception  of  the  necessity  of  reaching 
after  this  desired  object  by  adjusted  movements. 

3.  On  a  clear  conception  of  how  to  accomplish  these 
motions. 

4.  On  the  power  to  connect  this  mental  conception 
with  the  practical  execution  of  certain  motions  to  a 
certain  end. 

Investigating ,  in  each  simple,  even  in  the  first,  action 
of  her  child,  this  complexity  of  efforts,  no  mother  can 
fail  to  feel  an  earnest  educational  obligation  to  give  the 
needed  assistance  in  this  wonderful  process,  with  that 
reverence  and  conscientiousness  which  perceive  in  these 
first   efforts   the   future  weal   and   woe   of  her  child,  in 


INTENDED   MOVEMENTS. 


495 


regard  to  which  Froebel  says  :  "  It  is  impossible  to  undo 
in  the  second  year  what  has  been  done  wrong  in  the 
first  year,  by  merely  heaping  one  wrong  on  the  top  of 
the  other."  The  following  table  of  Preyer,  which  is 
copied,  may  serve  mothers  for  a  similar  aim  :  — 


Motion  8 


Shaking  of  the  head 
Holding  the  head  . . . 

Grasping 

Rising  the  upper  part 
of  the  body 

Pointing 

Sitting 

Standing 

Walking , 

Lifting  himself  up. . . 
Stepping  over  thresh 

old 

Kissing 

Climbing 

Jumping 


No  trace  of  j       First 
will.       j    attempt. 


10th  w'k 
17th  " 

12th  " 

17th  " 
13th  " 

21st  " 
40th  " 
13th  " 

65th  " 
11th  m'th 
24th  " 
24th  " 


4th  day 
11th  w'k 
18th  " 

19th  " 

35th  " 
19th  " 

23d  M 

41st  " 
28th  " 

68th  " 
12th  m'th 
26th  " 
27th  " 


Withreflec 
tion  aud 
success. 


16th  w'k 
16th  m 
77th  " 

5th  m'th 

39th  w'k 
39th  " 

48th  m 
65th  •« 

70th  " 

70th  " 
23d  m'th 
27th  " 
28th  " 


Remarks. 


No  support  on  its 
back. 

Without    any  sup- 
port. 
Entirely  free. 
Alone  and  free. 
Without  help. 

Free. 

Without  help. 
No  help. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

SUMMARY  OF  THE  GENERAL  RESULTS.  *" 

The  innate  movements  of  every  human  being,  al- 
though of  various  kinds,  are  alike  for  a  short  time  both 
before  and  after  birth,  but  more  free  than  in  the  ovum, 
and  modified  by  atmospheric  breathing.  These  move- 
ments are  impulsive,  such  as  purposeless  motions  of  the 
arms  and  legs  of  those  newly  born  and  their  grimaces, 
all  motor  nerves  seeming  to  take  a  part  in  these  muscu- 
lar contractions.  They  are,  however,  reflex  movements, 
which  they  receive  only  from  peripheral  impressions,  as 
light,  sound,  touch,  most  motor  nerves  likewise  taking 
part  in  them. 

A  third  kind  of  innate  movements  are  instinctive,  such 
as  sucking  and  licking.  In  new-born  animals,  especially 
in  young  chicks,  the  instinctive  movements  are  much 
more  complete,  especially  as  regards  visual  perceptions. 
The  eye  of  a  bird  in  its  embryonic  state  is  much  larger, 
compared  with  its  brain,  than  is  the  case  in  man.  Al- 
though these  impressions  result  in  such  apparently  vol- 
untary motions  as  picking,  no  movement  of  a  new  animal 
or  child  is  deliberate,  such  movements  being  possible 
only  after  a  sufficient  development  of  the  senses.     Every 


SUMMARY   OF   THE    GENERAL   RESULTS.  497 

impression  being  then  full,  and  compared  with  other 
impressions,  antecedent  and  subsequent,  its  cause  is  also 
recognized,  and  thus  becomes  a  thought.  Without  the 
power  of  thought  there  is  no  will,  without  activity  of  the 
senses  no  thought,  and  thus  the  will  is  inseparable  from 
the  senses,  disappearing  with  their  disappearance,  as  is 
seen  in  an  individual  fast  asleep. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  will  is  dependent  on  the 
senses,  it  does  not  follow  that  their  highly  developed 
activity  brings  along  with  it  a  developed  will.  Inten- 
tional motions  occur  only  after  the  first  three  months  of 
life  ;  they  arise  gradually,  but  not,  as  it  were,  by  sudden 
inspiration.  Such  movements,  which  surprise  the  specta- 
tor, have  previously,  when  not  noticed  by  him,  been  often 
made,  first  unintentionally,  then  singly,  thoughts  arising 
at  the  same  time  and  ultimately  in  combination  with  them. 

The  more  permeable  certain  nerves  have  become  by 
frequently  repeated  motions,  the  greater  resistance  will 
be  encountered  when  they  are  connected  with  others. 
Witness  the  exactness,  never  repeated  in  later  times,  with 
which  children  imitate  (when  about  four  years  old)  the 
accent,  pronunciation,  tone,  of  foreign  words  or  dialects 
of  their  native  tongue.  It  is  wrong  to  say  of  a  new-born 
child  that  it  desires  something. 

A  child's  attention  is  like  that  of  an  adult,  either  com- 
pulsory (caused  by  strong  sensual  impressions)  or  vol- 
untary, the  former  occurring  during  the  first  three  weeks 
of  life  in  man  only.  r 


498  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

In  controlling  a  child's  conceptions,  and  substituting 
better  ones  for  such  as  are  inadequate,  the  weakness  of 
its  will  has  to  be  taken  into  account.  In  that  respect  the 
striking  credulity,  docility,  obsequiousness,  and  but  slight 
independence  of  will  in  small  children  finds  its  parallel  in 
the  behavior  of  magnetized  adults.  If  a  child  about 
two  and  a  half  years  old,  after  having  eaten  part  of  some 
food,  is  suddenly  told  when  about  to  take  another  bite, 
"  You  have  had  enough,"  it  will  happen  that  it  stops  eat- 
ing. In  the  same  way,  it  is  easy  to  persuade  children  of 
three  or  four  that  a  certain  pain  they  are  suffering  is  over, 
that  they  are  not  tired,  not  thirsty,  provided  the  assertion 
is  made  with  sufficient  decision.  Hence,  little  children 
cannot  be  magnetized,  their  power  of  will  being  too  slight 
for  continued  attention. 

By  the  fatigue  consequent  on  continued  attention,  we 
can  account  for  the  rapid  change  of  a  child's  games.  Too 
frequent  indulgence  in  this  respect,  however  unobjection- 
able at  the  outset,  becomes  an  impediment  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  those  voluntary  checks  which  are  most  important 
for  the  formation  of  character,  and  self-will  is  fostered. 
Practice  in  obedience  cannot  begin  too  soon,  and  during 
my  daily  observations,  continued  for  six  years,  I  have 
noticed  no  drawback  to  early  consistent  guidance  of 
the  germinating  will,  provided  such  guidance  be  com- 
bined with  the  greatest  possible  gentleness  and  justice,  as 
though  a  very  baby  had  an  insight  into  the  usefulness 
of  obedience.     By   the    supposition   of  s"uch   insight,    a 


ON   THE    EVOLUTION    OF   THE    INTELLECT.  4(J9 

child's  insight  is  awakened  sooner  than  by  training  and  by 
assigning  a  true  and  reasonable  ground  for  every  com- 
mand ;  just  as  intelligence  is  begot  by  the  avoidance  of 
all  groundless  prohibition,  obedience  is  essentially  facili- 
tated. 

By  cultivating  conceptions  of  a  higher  order,  the  will 
can  be  guided  already  in  the  second  year  of  a  child's 
life,  and  its  character  thus  be  formed. 


THIRD    PART. 


ON    THE    EVOLUTION    OF    THE    INTELLECT. 

The  evolution  of  the  intellect  depends  so  very  much 
on  the  influence  exerted  upon  inborn  dispositions  by 
natural  surroundings  and  by  education  long  before  the 
beginning  of  systematic  instruction,  and  the  methods  of 
education  are  so  manifold,  that  it  is  not  possible  to  give 
a  complete  account  of  a  normal  intellectual  develop- 
ment. Such  an  account  would  have  to  embrace  two 
grades  :  — 

1.  The  combining  of  impressions  with  perceptions, 
which  consists  essentially  in  the  co-ordination  of  out- 
ward sensation  by  the  intellect  in  space  and  time. 

2.  The  combining  perceptions  with  conceptions. 
The  investigation  of  either  of  these  grades  is  so  great 

a  task  that  a  single  individual  may  enter  upon   it,  but 
cannot  easily  carry  it  out  evenly  in  all  directions. 


500  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

In  my  search  for  facts,  I  found  but  very  little  that 
can  be  relied  on,  and  I  therefore  confined  myself  to 
what  observations  I  have  made  on  my  own  child.  As 
I  have  omitted  whatever  is  doubtful,  I  consider  every 
detail  trustworthy,  nor  have  any  such  observations  re- 
garding mental  development  of  a  child  ever  been  pub- 
lished to  so  full  an  extent.  At  the  same  time,  I  have  be- 
come acquainted  with  enough  other  children  to  be  certain 
that,  at  least,  generally  speaking,  the  child  so  observed 
did  not  differ  from  other  healthy  and  intelligent  boys, 
notwithstanding  considerable  difference  in  the  time  and 
rapidity  of  development.  It  would  seem  that  girls  learn 
sooner  to  speak  than  boys;  whereas,  they  seem  to  pos- 
sess less  power  of  developing  logical  functions,  or  of 
forming  abstractions  of  a  higher  order,  the  emotions  are 
not  so  finely  shaded  off  in  boys  as  in  girls. 

Without  considering  such  differences,  the  following 
chapters  treat  exclusively  of  the  development  of  the 
brain's  intellectual  activity  during  the  first  years  of  life 
in  both  sexes.  I  have,  however,  found  the  inquiry  into 
the  influence  of  emotions  on  the  development  of  a  child's 
intellect  so  difficult  that  I  have  in  the  mean  time  not 
taken  any  account  of  it. 

The  observations  concern  the  child's  intellect,  inde- 
pendent of  language,  the  acquisition  of  speech,  and 
lastly,  of  the  feeling  of  sense. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  CULTIVATION  OF  THE  CHILD'S  INTELLECT,  INDE- 
PENDENT OF  LANGUAGE. 

A  widely  spread  prejudice  asserts  "  there  is  no  intel- 
lect without  language."  To  give  a  decision  is  difficult 
or  impossible  for  the  thinker  who  has  long  forgotten 
the  time  when  he  learned  how  to  speak.  For  even  he 
can,  on  having  arrived  at  a  conclusion,  not  admit  that 
he  has  been  thinking  without  words.  A  child  not  yet 
capable  of  speech  learns  how  to  think  of  its  own  ac- 
cord, as  it  so  learns  how  to  see  and  hear.  If  thinking 
is  "  inward  speaking,"  there  is  speech  without  words. 

Memory,  the  connection  of  cause  and  effect,  intended 
and  considered  movements,  for  the  purpose  of  dimin- 
ishing exertion,  must  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  be  as- 
cribed to  the  child,  all  of  them  independent  of  verbal 
speech.  The,  as  it  were,  embryonic  logic  of  a  child 
has  no  need  of  words. 

First  in  time  comes  memory,  without  which  intellect 
is  impossible.  The  sole  material  the  intellect  can  dis- 
pose of  is  received  by  the  senses,  and  given  by  the 
sensations ;  to  initiate  the  lowest  degree  of  intellectual 
activity,  —  comparison,  —  two  unequal  sensations  have  to 


502  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

occur.  But  as  the  sensations  which  are  to  be  com- 
pared cannot  take  place  all  at  the  same  time,  memory 
is  requisite ;  that  is,  the  recollection  of  former  sensa- 
tions necessary  for  comparison. 

By  memory,  I  designate  the  result  of  individual  im- 
pressions and  experiences  as  distinguished  from  instinct, 
which  consists  of  inherited  traces  of  ancestral  experi- 
ences. All  sensations  leave  behind  them  impressions 
made  on  the  brain,  some  of  which  are  but  slight  and 
easily  obliterated  by  others,  others  strong  and  more 
permanent. 

In  the  beginning  of  life  the  power  of  memory  seems 
to  be  first  exerted  on  taste  (sweetness)  and  smell  (the 
scent  of  milk).  Next  in  order  is  sight,  and  later, 
hearing.  A  baby,  when  three  or  four  months  old, 
changes  the  expression  of  his  face,  expressive  of  as- 
tonishment, on  being  taken  to  a  room  not  seen  before. 
The  new  sensations  of  light,  the  different  distribution 
of  shade,  excite  his  attention,  no  astonishment  being 
visible  when  he  is  taken  back  to  his  former  surround- 
ings, which  have  lost  the  charm  of  novelty ;  that  is,  a 
certain  recollection  has  been  imprinted  upon  the  baby's 
mind. 

Before  a  healthy  child  is  seven  months  old,  he  distin- 
guishes human  faces ;  first,  that  of  his  mother  from 
that  of  his  nurse,  then  that  of  his  father  whom  he  has 
seen  less  often,  and  all  three  faces  from  that  of  every 
stranger.     How  much  sooner  babies  recognize   and  fol- 


THE   CULTIVATION   OF   THE   CHILD'S   INTELLECT.       503 

low  with  their  eyes  human  faces  and  forms  than  other 
objects,  has  been  often  noticed. 

A  girl  when  but  seven  months  old  shows  a  good  deal 
of  interest  when  looking  at  pictures,  pointing  her  little 
finger  to  the  heads  of  human  figures. 

When  not  two  months  old  my  boy  could  localize  his 
mother's  face  and  voice ;  such  recognition  presupposes  a 
very  close  connection  of  the  pictures  of  memory. 

A  girl  of  eleven  months  recognized  at  once,  amidst 
sounds  of  joy,  her  nurse,  after  an  absence  of  six  days ; 
and  another  girl,  nine  months  old,  her  father,  after  a  sep- 
aration of  four  days.  My  boy,  when  but  six  months 
old,  did  not  recognize  his  nurse  after  an  absence  of  four 
weeks ;  whereas,  another  child,  only  four  months  old, 
noticed  the  absence  of  his  nurse,  which  lasted  only  one 
day,  in  the  evening ;  cried  very  much,  after  his  discovery, 
looking  about  everywhere  in  the  room,  amidst  renewed 
cries  on  finding  his  search  futile.  The  same  child,  when 
ten  months  old,  showed  indifference  to  his  parents  after 
an  absence.  When  one  of  nine  pins  was  taken  away,  the 
child  noticed  it,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  months  he 
knew  immediately  whether  his  ten  animals  were  com- 
plete or  not.  When  nineteen  and  twenty-one  months 
old,  respectively,  my  boy  knew  his  father  at  once  from 
a  distance,  after  an  absence  of  several  days,  and  once 
after  an  absence  of  two  weeks ;  and  when  twenty-three 
months  oM  he  showed  great  joy  on  seeing  again  toys 
which   he   had   not   seen   for  more   than   eleven   weeks, 


504  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

having  been  from  home  with  his  parents ;  all  this  not- 
withstanding his  otherwise  great  forgetfulness.  Often  a 
favorite  toy  could  be  taken  from  him  without  his  noticing 
or  asking  for  it.  But  when,  in  his  eighteenth  month, 
after  having  been  accustomed  to  carry  two  towels  to  his 
mother,  which  he  afterwards  had  to  take  back  to  their 
former  place,  on  one  occasion,  he  received  back  only 
one,  he  came  forward  with  questioning  look  and  tone  of 
voice,  to  fetch  the  other.  An  observation  of  this  kind 
proves  the  high  development  of  memory  for  connected 
conceptions  of  sight  and  motion  without  any  knowledge 
of  the  corresponding  words.  Such  artificial  associations, 
however,  are  soon  forgotten  unless  continually  renewed. 

Often  what  has  recently  been  committed  to  memory, 
such  as  verses,  can  be  sometimes  more  fluently  recited  in 
sleep  than  during  waking :  witness  a  girl  three  years 
and  five  months  old  who  could  not  repeat  without  hesita- 
tion a  birthday  poem  of  five  lines,  but  repeated  them 
aloud  and  without  interruption  in  her  sleep  the  following 
night. 

Notwithstanding  the  absence  of  accurate  observations, 
it  is  generally  asserted  that  an  adult  can  remember  only 
as  far  back  as  the  fourth  year  of  his  life.  No  one  has 
any  recollection  of  his  former  incapacity  of  balancing  his 
head,  of  turning  round,  of  sitting,  standing,  walking, 
difficulty  of  hearing  and  of  distinguishing  his  body  from 
other  objects. 

A  child's  reasoning  cannot  be  called  illogical,  however 


THE   CULTIVATION   OF   THE   CHILD'S   INTELLECT.       505 

awkward  it  may  be.  An  adult  wishing  to  water  flowers 
will  first  see  whether  his  watering-pot  contains  water ; 
whereas,  an  infant  of  a  year  and  a  half,  witnessing  the 
watering  of  plants,  found  great  pleasure  in  going  with 
the  'empty  watering-pot  from  flower  to  flower,  imagining 
to  spread  water,  the  notion  "  watering-pot "  being  iden- 
tical in  his  mind  with  the  conception  "  watering-pot  full 
of  water." 

Much,  therefore,  that  is  ascribed  to  a  child's  imagina- 
tion results  essentially  from  the  formation  of  indistinct 
conceptions,  and  because  he  is  unable  to  combine  constant 
attributes  with  sharply  defined  conceptions.  When  a 
child  not  yet  two  years  old,  holding  an  empty  cup  to  his 
mouth,  pretends  to  sip  from  it,  such  *■  play  "  results,  in 
the  first  place,  from  the  insufficient  conception  of  "  a  full 
cup."  Beverages,  drinking  utensils,  and  drinking  have 
so  often  been  perceived  together,  that  when  occurring 
singly  they  suggest  each  other ;  hence,  the  pleasure  a 
child  has  in  pouring  out  of  empty  jugs  into,  and  in  drink- 
ing out  of,  empty  cups. 

The  ease  with  which  children  can  be  deceived  is  owing 
much  more  to  want  of  experience  than  to  want  of  intel- 
lect. When  a  child  a  year  and  a  half  old,  after  having 
held  out  some  leaves  to  a  sheep  or  a  stag,  a  few  days 
after  on  seeing  a  bird  hop  across  the  road  offers  to  it 
quickly  plucked  blades  of  grass,  presuming  that  it  also 
will  eat  them  out  of  his  hand,  it  is  wrong  to  call  such  an 
act  "  stupid" ;  it  is  a  proof  of  ignorance,  that  is,  inexpe- 


506  CONSCiOtrS   MOTHER&OOI5; 

rience  ;  it  is  not  illogical.  The  term  w  stupid  "  would  be 
justified  only  if  the  child  failed  to  learn  ultimately  the 
difference  of  the  animals  thus  fed.  On  the  other  hand, 
when  a  child  two  and  a  half  years  old  puts  a  watch  first 
to  his  right,  then  to  his  left  ear,  and  then  pointing  to  the 
clock  on  the  wall,  exclaims  with  great  joy,  "The  watch 
"s  also  going,"  such  independent  induction  is  rightly  called 
a  token  of  understanding. 

The  power  of  forming  such  abstractions  may  be  noticed 
in  children  not  yet  one  year  old.  A  baby  will  be  struck 
with  the  white  appearance  of  milk,  and  "abstracting"  or 
isolating  this  attribute  from  innumerable  other  impres- 
sions, combine  it  into  a  conception.  When,  some  months 
later,  it  chooses  some  sound  as  an  outward  sign  of  this 
abstraction,  this  sign  did  not  bring  about  the  formation 
of  the  conception,  but  was  subsequent  to  it.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  collect  observations  concerning  this  power 
of  reasoning  in  early  childhood,  while  it  is  still  uninter- 
fered  with  by  language,  either  for  progress  or  the  re- 
verse, whereas  there  is  a  great  lack  of  such  observations. 
When  a  child,  not  yet  two  years  old,  on  listening  to  a 
watch,  exclaims  for  the  first  time,  "  Tick,  tack,"  looking 
at  the  same  time  at  the  clock  on  the  wall,  it  is  not,  as  G. 
Lindner  says,  the  "first,  although  empty  and  confused, 
conception  "  the  child  has  formed,  but  it  had  the  concep- 
tion previously,  to  which  it  now  for  the  first  time  gave  a 
name. 

The  observation  Darwin  made  in  his  child  when  one 


THE    CULTIVATION   OE   THE    CHILD'S    INTELLECT.       507 

hundred  and  forty-four  days  old,  appeared  to  him  as  the 
first  proof  of  a  "kind. of  practical  reflection."  It  was 
this  :  the  child  taking  hold  of  his  father's  finger  put  it 
to  his  mouth,  but  his  own  hand  hindered  his  sucking  the 
finger.  Instead  of  removing  the  hand,  the  child  let  it 
glide  along  the  finger,  whereby  it  was  enabled  to  put  the 
point  of  the  finger  into  its  mouth.  As  this  proceeding 
Was  several  times  repeated,  it  was  manifestly  not  acciden- 
tal, but  intentional.  At  the  age  of  five  months  there 
arose  associations  of  conceptions,  independent  of  any 
instruction  ;  as,  for  example,  when  the  child  had  had  his 
hat  and  cloak  put  on,  it  became  very  angry  if  it  was  not 
taken  outside   immediately. 

Of  the  strength  of  logical  reasoning  without  words,  the 
following  observations  give  evidence  :  when  my  boy,  as 
well  as  another  child,  both  fifteen  months  old,  had  burned 
his  finger  at  a  burning  taper,  he  could  not  again  be  pre- 
vailed upon  to  approach  his  finger  to  the  flame,  but 
would  sometimes,  in  play,  move  it  in  its  direction,  with- 
out touching  it;  he  likewise  (when  eighteen  months  old) 
carried  a  piece  of  firewood  to  the  door  of  the  stove  and 
shoved  it  inside,  proudly  looking  at  his  parents.  This 
surely  is  a  case  of  something  more  than  imitation. 

Before  he  was  fifteen  months  old  he  would  never  with- 
out screaming  submit  to  have  his  mouth  and  chin  wiped, 
but  allowed  the  disagreeable  operation  to  go  on  in  silence 
ever  after.  He  cannot  but  have  noticed  that  it  was  over 
all  the  sooner,  the  more  quiet  he  was. 


508  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Similar  observations  can  be  made  with  every  infant, 
provided  there  is  not  too  much  talking,  chastising,  yield- 
ing, and  spoiling.  In  his  nineteenth  month  it  happened 
that  my  boy  one  evening  resisted  the  order  to  lie  down. 
I  let  him  cry,  rise  on  his  couch,  but  did  not  take  him  out, 
nor  did  I  speak  to  him,  nor  use  any  violence,  remaining 
near  him  all  the  time  without  any  movement.  At  last  he 
got  tired,  lay  down  and  at  once  fell  asleep.  Thus  was 
acquired  the  knowledge  of  the  uselessness  of  screaming 
in  order  to  escape  obedience.  Pie  had  learned  to  know 
what  was  right  (permitted  and  enjoined)  and  was  wrong 
(forbidden)  ;  at  seventeen  months  his  sense  of  cleanliness 
was  strongly  developed ;  and  later  (in  his  thirty-third 
month)  he  could  not  see  without  a  strong  protest  his 
nurse  acting  counter  to  injunctions  given  to  him  alone, 
such  as  putting  her  knife  to  her  mouth,  or  dipping  bread 
into  milk. 

Feelings  of  this  kind  prove  not  so  much  the  existence 
of  a  sense  of  duty,  as  the  conviction  that  transgression  of 
well-known  rules  of  conduct  have  unpleasant  consequen- 
ces, that  is,  that  certain  acts  bring  along  with  the« 
pleasurable  feelings  and  others  the  reverse.  I  am  sorry 
not  to  have  succeeded  in  ascertaining  by  how  much  time 
they  preceded  the  knowledge  of  words. 

In  many  of  the  cases  mentioned  above  and  easily  mul- 
tiplied by  assiduous  observation,  there  is  not  the  least 
sign  of  an  influence  of  spoken  words.  The  cases  brought 
forward  in  this  chapter,  and  observed  by  myself,  prove 


THE    CULTIVATION   OF   THE    CHILD'S    INTELLECT.       509 

that  a  child's  reasoning  power  attains  a  high  degree  with- 
out the  knowledge  of  words ;  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
consider  the  intelligent  actions  of  children  who  cannot 
yet  speak,  that  is,  express  their  conceptions  in  words,  but 
can  already  connect  them  with  each  other,  as  specifically 
different  from  the  intelligent  actions  of  clever  orang- 
outangs and  chimpanzees.  Wherein  the  difference  so 
consists  is,  that  the  latter  cannot  form  so  many  nor  such 
clear  or  abstract  conceptions  as  the  more  endowed  human 
child  among  men,  long  before  it  has  learned  how  to 
speak.  In  consequence  of  speech,  the  gap  is  so  much 
widened  that  what  previously  seemed  in  many  respects 
almost  human-like,  now  presents  a  loathsome  caricature 
of  man.  In  order,  therefore,  to  understand  the  true  dif- 
ference between  man  and  brute,  it  has  to  be  discovered 
how  a  child  or  animal  can  have  conceptions  without 
words,  and  can  adequately  connect  them  ;  whether,  for 
instance,  it  is  done  in  recollected  images,  as  in  dreams ; 
and  an  inquiry  is  needed  into  the  manner  of  the  acquisi- 
tion of  speech.  Some  insight  may  be  had  into  the  for- 
mer important  problem  by  investigating  how  children 
born  deaf,  the  so-called  deaf  and  dumb,  form  their  con- 
ceptions. 

For  this  purpose,  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  the 
words  of  Mr.  C.  Oehlwein,  director  of  the  Weimar 
Institution  for  the  deaf  and  dumb:  — 

"In  the  first  years  of  his  life  a  deaf  and  dumb  child 
looks  at,  turns  about,  and  handles  in  all  directions,  ob- 


510  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

jects  exciting  his  attention.  He  goes  near  to  such  as 
are  more  distant,  receiving  in  that  way,  like  ordinary 
children,  sensations  and  conceptions  of  sensations,  and 
from  the  objects  themselves  a  number  of  attributes, 
which  he  compares  with  each  other,  and  with  those  of 
other  objects,  but  always  refers  back  to  that  one  which 
happens  to  interest  him.  The  influence  this  object  has 
had  on  him  by  means  of  his  sight  and  touch,  he  repre- 
sents to  other  individuals  by  signs,  appealing  to  sight  and 
mediately  also  to  touch,  representing  by  his  movements 
the  object  he  has  seen  and  felt.  For  this  purpose  he  uses 
such  means  as  nature  has  placed  in  the  power  of  man  : 
that  is  to  say,  his  power  to  move  the  muscles  of  his  face, 
his  hands,  and  if  need  be,  his  feet.  These  signs,  self- 
formed  and  received,  and  not  received  by  any  instruction, 
which  the  deaf-mute  employs,  are,  as  it  were,  the  outline 
of  the  image  he  discovered,  and  are,  therefore,  a  close 
representation  of  his  mental  state.  Not  only  are,  in  the 
course  of  his  sensations  and  perceptions,  his  own  senses, 
his  own  observation  and  mode  of  conception,  active,  but 
the  attributes  of  the  objects  observed  by  him  are,  ac- 
cording to  his  particular  endowments,  likewise  raised 
by  him  to  conceptions,  however  incomplete,  through  com- 
parison, separation,  combination ;  that  is,  by  his  own 
act,  and  both  named  and  recognized  by  signs  intelligible 
to  himself.  Thus  is  shown  how  the  mental  development 
of  the  deaf-mute  is  brought  about  by  his  want  of  hearing 
and  language.     It  seems  at  first  an  advantage  that  the 


THE    CULTIVATION   OF   THE    CHILD'S   INTELLECT.       511 

sign  with  which  he  represents  a  conception  is  taken  from 
the  impression,  from  the  image,  from  the  representation 
which  he  himself  has,  or  has  had,  such  sign  designating 
nothing  foreign  to  him,  but  only  that  which  has  become 
his  own.  On  the  other  hand,  he  has  not  that  power  of 
generalization  ultimately  acquired  by  an  ordinary  child, 
although,  as  it  were,  by  an  outward  compulsion,  as,  for 
instance,  when  the  former,  by  pointing  to  his  own  flesh 
and  skin,  designates  also  animal  flesh  and  animal  skin. 
A  deaf-mute  touches  his  lips  when  he  means  to  represent 
something  red,  which  sign  applies  equally  to  the  redness 
of  the  sky,  of  pictures,  wearing  a  pearl,  flowers,  etc." 

But  before  a  thinking  deaf-mute  has  formed  the  notion 
of  "  red,"  he  had  acquired  already  the  conceptions,  "lip," 
"  dress,"  "sky,"  "flower,"  etc. 

To  know  how  the  intelligence  of  an  ordinary  child  de- 
velops, and  how  greatly  independent  of  spoken  language 
is  his  manner  of  forming  conceptions,  a  collection  of  such 
conceptions  as  uneducated  deaf-mutes,  unacquainted  with 
either  the  finger  alphabet  or  articulation,  make  known  to 
others  by  means  of  their  own  gestures,  is  indispensable. 
But  their  language  comprises  "  not  only  those  various  ex- 
pressive changes  of  countenance,  but  also  the  different 
gesticulations,  attitudes,  directions,  positions,  and  move- 
ments of  all  parts  of  the  body  by  which  a  deaf-mute 
expresses  his  conceptions  naturally,  that  is,  uninfluenced 
by  any  hind  of  education" 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SPEECH  IN  THE 

CHILD. 

If  we  compare  the  obstacles  to  speech  occurring  in  the 
adult  with  the  imperfections  of  speech  characterizing  the 
child,  and  also  make  the  latter  a  subject  of  chronological 
observation,  we  shall  discover  the  order  in  which  the  dif- 
ferent portions  of  the  articulating  apparatus  come  into 
action.  The  impressive  and  expressive  *  nerve-lines  will 
first  occupy  our  attention. 

The  new-born  child  is  deaf,  so  that  no  sounds  it  makes 
can  be  regarded  as  answers  to  other  sounds  ;  its  first  cry 
is  purely  a  reflex  action,  like  the  sound  made  by  the  de- 
capitated frog  whose  back  is  stroked.  This  short  period 
of  deafness  is  followed  by  one  in  which  cries  express  bod- 
ily conditions  and  feelings,  like  pain,  hunger,  and  cold. 
Even  here  there  is  no  connection  between  the  expressive 
acts  and  the  auditory  impressions,  but  the  vocal  organs 
are  used  when  other  sensory  nerves  than  those  of  hearing 
are  unpleasantly  affected,  as  when  there  is  a  dazzling 
light  or  bitter  taste.     Not  until  later  does  a  sudden  audi- 


*  Impressive,  i.  e.,  those  occupied  with  auditory  impressions ;  expres- 
sive, those  relating  to  articulation. 


I 


HISTORY   OF   THE    DEVELOPMENT   OF   SPEECH.         513 

tory  impression  (which  formerly  caused  only  a  start,  and 
subsequently  a  quivering  of  the  eyelid)  arouse  an  an- 
swering cry  ;  and  this  also  may  be  purely  reflex. 

Quite  different  is  the  first  audible  response  to  a  newly 
recognized  auditory  impression,  such  as  the  sounds  a 
child  makes  when  it  hears  music  for  the  first  time.  I 
regard  this  as  the  first  sign  of  the  newly  completed  con- 
nection between  impressive  (auditory)  and  expressive 
(emotional  articulativc)  nerve-lines,  although  both  were 
separately  open  long  before. 

We  must  now  consider  whether  there  is  a  firm  inter- 
central  communication  between  the  two.  If  the  child 
laughs  and  shows  pleasure  at  the  sound  of  music,  its 
voice  cannot  be  due  to  reflex  action,  since  without  the 
cerebrum  it  could  neither  laugh  nor  express  joy.  But 
this  does  not  prove  the  existence  of  a  center  of  speech 
(sprachcentrum)  in  the  infant.  The  fact  that  it  makes 
easily  uttered  sounds,  only  shows  that  the  articulatory 
apparatus  is  in  order,  and  that  it  is  intentionally  em- 
ployed. The  syllables  aimlessly  uttered  during  the  first 
half-year  are  simple  ones ;  during  the  first  month  we 
observe  almost  exclusively  vowels,  and  often  m  is  the 
chief  representative  of  the  consonants  in  the  third  month. 
Yet  despite  the  simplicity  of  sounds,  the  child  can  fre- 
quently, often  long  before  the  seventh  month,  respond  to 
questions,  admonition  ,  or  reproof,  either  with  inarticu- 
late sounds  or  very  simple  syllables,  like  pa,  ta,  ma,  da, 
etc.     These  cannot  be  purely  reflex,   like  sneezing,   as 


514  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

they  do  not  occur  with  microcephalous  children,  or  those 
born  deaf.  They  accordingly  indicate  a  simple  but  un- 
mistakably intellectual  action  of  the  cerebrum  between 
the  perception  of  the  sound  and  the  utterance.  Besides, 
we  notice  that  the  infant  behaves  differently  according  as 
it  hears  a  stern  command  or  a  caressing  word,  a  prohibi- 
tion or  a  permission  ;  although  it  is  the  tone,  accent,  and 
pitch  of  the  voice,  more  than  the  words,  which  attract  its 
attention.  Vowels  are  heard  by  the  child  much  better 
than  consonants  during  the  first  half-year. 

Although  all  healthy  infants,  before  they  can  repeat  or 
understand  a  word,  can  express  their  feelings  by  various 
sounds  and  even  syllables,  and  can  distinguish  vowels 
and  a  few  consonants  in  the  words  they  hear,  yet  they 
are  not  in  this  superior  to  the  intelligent  animal.  The 
dog  will  bark  or  whine  in  response  to  petting  or  scold- 
ing, and  has  quite  as  clear  an  understanding  of  the  vari- 
ous commands,  Down!  Fetch!  Charge!  Here!  etc.,  as 
the  infant  has  of  the  nursery  vocabulary.  Since  each 
language  expresses  such  commands  by  different  terms, 
we  see  that  there  is  no  inherited  connection  between  the 
quality  of  the  sound  heard  and  the  act  to  be  performed, 
as  there  perhaps  is  in  the  case  of  the  runaway  chicken, 
which  follows  the  clucking  of  the  hen. 

Even  before  the  articulating  mechanism  of  the  child  is 
sufficiently  developed  for  it  to  repeat  the  sounds  heard, 
it  will  show  its  understanding  of  them  by  appropri- 
ate motions  and  gestures.     In   some  children,   on   the 


HISTORY   OF   THE    DEVELOPMENT   OF   SPEECH.         515 

other  hand,  imitative  articulation  is  developed  somewhat 
earlier  than  comprehension,  but  this  parrot-like  speech 
can  never  occur  before  the  fourth  month,  and  only  after 
some  spoken  word  has  already  been  understood.  Lind- 
ner tells  how,  when  he  noticed  that  his  eight-weeks-old 
child  was  observing  the  swinging  pendulum  of  the  clock, 
he  carried  him  up  to  it,  saying,  "Tick-tack,"  in  the  rhythm 
of  the  pendulum  ;  and  how,  when  he  afterwards  repeated, 
"Tick-tack,"  the  child  would  turn,  at  first  slowly,  but 
before  long  instantly  towards  the  clock.  In  this  case 
comprehension  was  shown  long  before  the  first  attempt 
at  imitation. 

The  inability  of  the  child  to  repeat  syllables  cannot, 
shortly  before  he  accomplishes  the  task,  be  ascribed  to 
a  purely  physical  incapacity,  or  to  stupidity  or  weakness 
of  will-power.  The  unsuccessful  efforts  he  makes  at 
imitation  show  that  his  will-power  is  not  at  fault.  We 
observe  from  the  sharpness  of  hearing,  and  the  involun- 
tary formation  of  the  very  sounds  which  are  to  be  imi- 
tated, that  the  impressive  and  expressive  nerve  lines  are 
developed  and  intact ;  so  the  cause  of  the  inability  must 
be  a  centro-motor  one.  The  connection  between  the 
sound  center  and  syllable  center,  and  that  of  both  with 
the  motorium  of  speech,  is  not  yet  fully  open.  But  the 
very  first  attempt  at  imitating  a  sound  shows  progress 
in  the  development  of  the  brain,  since  no  attempt  at 
imitation,  even  of  a  single  sound,  can  occur  without  the 
participation  of  the  cerebrum.     The  first   successful  at- 


516  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

tempt  of  this  sort  proves  conclusively  the  establishment 
of  inter-central  connections  between  the  sound  and  syl- 
lable centers  and  the  motorium ;  but  it  tells  us  nothing 
with  regard  to  the  comprehension  of  the  word  repeated. 
We  find  that  all  children  who  can  hear,  but  are  not  able 
to  talk,  repeat  many  words  without  understanding  them, 
and  understand  many  words  without  being  able  to  re- 
peat them. 

It  is  certain  that  the  majority  of  children  whose  hear- 
ing is  good,  develop  the  impressive  more  than  the 
expressive,  articulatory  side.  Probably  those  children 
who  early  become  skillful  imitators  of  sound  are  the 
first  to  learn  to  speak,  and  the  ones  whose  cerebrum 
grows  earliest  and  stops  growing  earliest ;  while  those 
who  are  slower  and  less  inclined  to  imitate,  for  the  most 
part  learn  to  speak  later,  but  are  more  intelligent,  for 
the  brain  grows  more  with  higher  mental  activitv.  It 
is  better  developed  when  the  child,  instead  of  mechan- 
ically imitating  words,  tries  to  discover  their  meaning ; 
and  this  period  is  the  most  interesting  of  the  whole 
mental  development.  Just  as  the  adult,  who  has  par- 
tially learned  a  foreign  language  and  hears  it  fluently 
spoken,  can  catch  the  meaning  of  a  portion  and  imagine 
the  sense  of  the  whole,  so  the  child  will  understand 
certain  words,  and  by  watching  the  expression  and  ges- 
tures of  the  speaker,  will  often  divine  the  remainder  of 
a  sentence,  showing  its  comprehension  by  gestures  and 
cries,  before  it  is  able  to  speak  a  single  intelligible  word. 


HISTORY  OF   THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF    SPEECH.        517 

The  cause  of  a  healthy  child's  slowness  to  express  in 
articulate  words  what  it  understands  and  desires  is  not 
due,  as  has  often  been  supposed,  to  a  slower  develop- 
ment of  the  expressive  motor  mechanism,  but  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  uniting  the  various  central  sensoriums  (Sinnes- 
Eindruck  Magazine)  with  the  inter-central  connecting 
line,  which  runs  between  the  acoustic  centers  of  speech 
and  the  motorium  of  speech. 

The  order  in.  which  the  separate  sounds  independently 
appear  varies  greatly  with  different  children.*  But  ob- 
servations have  shown  that  by  far  the  greater  majority 
of  the  sounds  which  a  child  uses  after  it  has  learned  to 
talk,  and  many  made  in  addition  to  these,  are  rightly 
formed  by  him  within  the  first  eight  months  of  his  exist- 
ence, although  quite  without  intention  or  aim.  The  plas- 
ticity of  the  youthful  organs  of  speech  renders  this  feat 
easy ;  and  no  child  has  been  observed  to  proceed  con- 
sistently in  accordance  with  the  principle  of  least  effort, 
t.  e.,  from  the  more  easily  articulated  sounds  to  those 
which  are  physiologically  more  difficult.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  probably  true  of  all  children  who  learn  to 
talk,  that  they  are  obliged  to  relearn,  by  painstaking 
imitation,  many  sounds  which  they  had  uttered  without 
effort  during  the  period  of  infancy.     Even  the  very  syl- 

*  Prof.  Preyer  introduces  a  table,  showing  the  order  in  which  the 
different  novel  and  consonant  sounds  were  produced  by  his  own  child 
during  the  first  twenty-seven  months,  as  nearly  as  they  could  be 
observed  and  chronicled. 


518  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

lables  which  the  infant  often  repeats  of  its  own  accord 
till  it  is  tired,  like  da,  the  older  child  is  at  first  unable 
to  produce,  although  its  strenuous  efforts  show  its  great 
desire  to  do  so.  That  he  hears  them  correctly  is  proved 
by  the  confidence  with  which  he  responds,  by  appropriate 
gestures,  to  words  of  similar  sound  to  each  other,  which 
might  easily  be  confounded. 

At  this  stage  of  its  intellectual  development,  the  child 
is  superior  to  a  very  intelligent  animal ;  not  on  account 
of  its  knowledge  of  speech,  which  it  shares  with  the 
more  intelligent  portion  of  the  brute  creation,  but  because 
it  already  forms  much  more  numerous  and  complex  ideas. 
The  period  during  which  a  strong,  healthy  child  is  on 
the  same  mental  plane  with  animals  closes,  certainly,  by 
the  end  of  its  first  year.  And  long  before  this  it  has 
gained,  through  its  inborn  sensations  of  pleasure  and 
pain,  more  or  less  accurate  concepts  in,  at  least,  one 
department,  that  of  food.  This  is  probably  the  first 
notion  which  the  infant  obtains ;  and  Romanes  is  correct 
in  saying  that  the  idea  of  food  arises  within  us  as  a  result 
of  hunger,  quite  independently  of  speech. 

Whoever  has  conscientiously  watched  the  intellectual 
development  of  infants  must  be  convinced  that  the  for- 
mation of  concepts  does  not  go  hand  in  hand  with  the 
acquisition  of  words,  but  is  a  necessary  condition  to  the 
understanding  of  the  first  words  that  are  to  be  learned. 
Long  before  the  child  understands  a  single  word,  before 
it  consistently  uses  a  syllable  in  a  definite  sense,  it  already 


HISTORY    OE   THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   SPEECH.         519 

has  a  number  of  concepts  which  it  expresses  by  looks, 
gestures,  and  cries.  The  association  of  touched  and  seen 
objects  with  impressions  of  taste  is  probably  the  first 
source  of  ideas.  The  alalic  (non-articulating)  toothless 
child  has  a  lively  interest  in  bottles,  and  when  it  sees  a 
bottle  filled  with  any  white,  opaque  fluid  (e.  g.,  water  of 
lead),  it  cries  and  stretches  out  its  arms  for  it,  thinking 
it  is  a  bottle  of  milk,  as  my  child  did  in  its  thirty-first 
week.  An  empty  bottle,  or  one  containing  water,  is  not 
nearly  so  attractive ;  that  is,  the  concept  of  food  arises 
at  the  sight  of  a  bottle  with  definite  contents,  without 
any  words  whatever  being  understood  or  even  uttered. 
The  formation  of  ideas  and  concepts  is  thus  shown  to  be 
independent  of  words. 

It  is  not  impossible  that  the  making  of  concepts  should 
continue  after  a  total  loss  of  verbal  memory  (as  in  the 
case  of  Lordat)  ;  but,  nevertheless,  it  is  certain  that 
ideas  of  a  higher  order  can  only  be  formed  by  one  who 
has  completely  mastered  the  art  of  speech.  Intelligent 
mute  childen  are  acquainted  with  much  more  numerous 
and  complicated  concepts,  but  not  many  more  of  the 
higher  abstractions  than  very  intelligent  animals,  and 
adults  whose  vocabulary  is  small  have  no  stronger  power 
of  abstraction  than  children.  The  latter  learn  abstract 
words  more  slowly  than  concrete  ones,  but  retain  them 
longer ;  for,  when  the  memory  fails,  proper  names  and 
designations  of  concrete  objects  are  first  forgotten. 

At  all  events,  the  intelligent  mute  child,  even  without 


520  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

knowledge  of  words,  ean  form  abstractions  of  a  lower 
order.  When  Sigismund  showed  his  little  son,  less  than 
a  year  old,  a  stuffed  woodcock,  and,  pointing  to  it,  said. 
"Bird,"  the  child,  who  could  not  speak  a  word,  looked  in- 
stantly toward  another  part  of  the  room  where  a  stuffed 
owl  stood.  The  idea  was  already  formed  here.  But  how 
little  specialized  the  first  ideas  are  which  are  independent 
of  food  we  can  see  from  the  fact  that  with  Lindner's  child 
(in  the  tenth  month),  "up"  meant  also  "down,"  and 
"warm,"  also  "cold."  If  these  instances,  which  are  by 
no  means  uncommon,  are  not  due  to  a  failure  to  differ- 
entiate the  ideas,  "then,"  as  Lindner  says,  "the  chLd 
already  has  an  instinctive  feeling  that  antitheses  are  only 
the  extremes  of  one  and  the  same  series  of  ideas.' 

Before  the  new-born  babe  is  able  to  seek  the  pleasur- 
able and  avoid  the  painful,  it  expresses  its  feelings  and 
needs  by  monotonous  cries.  These  gradually  vary,  so 
that  we  are  able  to  distinguish  certain  sounds  as  indica- 
tive of  pleasure  and  pain.  Then  come  spontaneously 
uttered  syllables,  and  not  until  long  after,  the  imitation 
of  natural  sounds.  The  imperfect  utterance  of  these 
gives  the  effect  of  new  terms,  and  since  the  child  also 
uses  familiar  words  in  a  new  sense,  his  dialect  gains  an 
original  aspect,  and  is  called  "baby  talk."  But  it  is 
important  to  remember  that  feelings  and  concepts  do  not 
now  arise  for  the  first  time ;  they  have  simply  reached 
their  first  articulate  expression. 

In  adults  new  concepts  generate  new  words,  while  with 


HISTORY   OF   THE   DEVELOPMENT  OE   SPEECH.        521 

the  mute  child  they  only  excite  new  cries  and  motions  of 
the  face  and  muscles.  Many  conditions  are  often  ex- 
pressed by  the  same  cry,  just  as  a  person  affected  with 
aphasia  will  often  denote  every  mental  state  by  one  and 
I  he  same  word.  Even  when  a  person  is  fully  master  of 
his  language,  the  words  at  his  disposal  are  not  always  ade- 
quate to  express  his  ideas,  as  when  he  desires  to  give  a 
description  of  a  cloud,  or  of  a  pain  he  is  suffering.  The 
idea  is  clear,  but  the  words  are  insufficient.  The  bulk  of 
philosophical  and  theological  literature  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  different  persons  do  not  attach  the  same  idea  to  the 
same  word.  If  an  idea  is  especially  difficult  to  express 
clearly  in  words,  e.g.,  "die,"  it  is  designated  by  many 
different  terms,  which  increase  the  confusion.  But  words 
are  absolutely  necessary  for  the  clear  conception  of  higher 
ideas  and  their  accurate  transfer  to  other  persons  ;  hence, 
it  is  important  to  know  how  the  child  learns  first  to  utter 
and  then  to  employ  words. 

We  must  note  that  it  appears  quite  immaterial  what 
syllables  and  words  are  employed  to  first  designate  the 
childish  concepts.  We  can  teach  the  child  false  terms, 
but  it  will  use  them  loyally.  If  we  should  teach  it  later 
on  that  "  twice  three  are  five,"  it  would  only  give  the 
name  of  "  five  "  to  what  is  really  six,  and  soon  adopt  the 
current  phraseology. 

For  the  first  articulate  expression  of  concepts,  some  of 
those  easily  uttered  syllables  are  employed  w7hich  have 
been  previously  uttered  by  the  child  without  conscious- 


522  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

ness  or  aim  ;  the  meaning  is  introduced  into  them  wholly 
by  the  parents  or  nurse.  Such  syllables  are  pa  and  ma, 
with  their  reduplications,  papa,  mamma,  as  appellations 
of  the  parents.  The  sense  of  these  syllables  varies  more 
or  less  in  different  dialects,  while  in  some  languages  the 
ma  sound  designates  the  father,  and  the  pa  or  ba  sound 
the  mother.  Similarly,  the  syllable  "  tata  "  is  sometimes 
employed  to  denote  the  parents  or  grandparents,  but 
often  in  the  sense  of  "good  by,"  "gone." 

At  this  period  the  child  has  a  strong  inclination  to  me- 
chanically repeat  all  sorts  of  sounds,  syllables,  and  words, 
just  as  it  imitates  gestures.  The  ear  assists  this  opera- 
tion, but  is  not  indispensable  to  it,  since  even  those  born 
deaf  learn  to  speak  by  imitating  the  motions  of  the 
tongue  and  lips.  This  they  often  do  better  than  the 
infant  which  can  hear,  since  the  latter  depends  very 
largely  upon  the  sound.  I  have  always  found  that  it  was 
very  difficult  for  a  child  to  imitate  a  position  of  the 
mouth  which  was  not  accompanied  by  the  corresponding 
sound ;  while  if  the  acoustic  effect  was  added,  the  task 
was  easily  accomplished.  Accordingly,  the  connection 
between  the  ear  and  the  center  of  speech  must  be  freer 
than  that  between  the  eye  and  the  center  of  speech.  In 
the  case  of  the  child  which  does  not  yet  talk,  but  which 
can  repeat  syllables  correctly  and  begin  to  connect  them 
with  primitive  concepts,  the  act  of  imitation  takes  longer 
than  with  the  normal  adult,  although  the  nerve-lines  in 
the   brain   are   both   absolutely   and    relatively   shorter. 


HISTOKV   01*   THE   DEVELOPMENT   OF   SPEECH.         523 

This  is  mainly  because  the  arrangement  and  manipula- 
tion, in  the  center  of  auditory  perception,  of  what  is 
heard,  or  in  the  center  of  visual  perception,  of  what  is 
seen,  requires  a  longer  time  in  the  child. 

To  the  question,  how  the  child  proceeds  to  learn  and 
employ  words,  we  can  reply  :  in  the  first  place,  it  has 
concepts ;  secondly,  it  imitates  sounds,  syllables,  and 
words ;  and  thirdly,  it  unites  the  latter  with  those  con- 
cepts. When,  e.  g.,  the  concept  "  white  +  moist  +  sweet 
+  warm "  has  arisen  from  frequent  sight,  feeling,  and 
taste  of  milk,  it  depends  upon  the  syllables  used  to 
pacify  the  hungry  infant,  whether  it  expresses  its  desire 
for  food  by"mimi,"  "mamma,"  "nana"  or  some  other 
form.  The  oftener  it  gains  the  concept  food  (t«  e.,  some- 
thing which  removes  the  disagreeable  sensation  of  hun- 
ger), and  at  the  same  time  hears  the  sound  "milk,"  the 
more  will  the  latter  be  associated  with  the  former,  until, 
in  view  of  its  being  understood  by  all,  this  term  is 
finally  adopted.  Thus  the  child  learns  the  first  words, 
and  these  always  have  a  wider  range  of  meaning  than 
those  he  learns  later. 

In  the  above  process  the  concept  already  exists, 
and  only  has  to  be  expressed  on  hearing  the  appro- 
priate word.  The  same  result  is  reached  by  a  second 
method,  when  a  word,  e.  g.,  "snow,"  is  heard  by 
the  child,  and  repeated  by  him  without  any  idea  of 
its  meaning,  and  then  he  is  shown  some  actual  snow, 
so   that   the    empty   word    becomes    connected    with    its 


524  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

concept.  This  is  a  more  difficult  and  artificial  process 
than  the  first. 

A  third  way  is  when  concept  and  word  present  them- 
selves almost  simultaneously,  as  is  the  case  with  inter- 
jections and  onomatopoetic  *  appellations.  Wholly  origi- 
nal onomatopoetic  words  are  rare  with  children  ;  appella- 
tions of  animals,  such  as  "bow-wow,"  "moo-moo,"  and 
"  peep-peep "  being  taught  to  them  by  the  parent  or 
nurse.  A  few  such  names,  however,  like  "  cuckoo," 
"quack,"  are  probably  not  infrequently  formed  by  chil- 
dren of  their  own  accord,  although  with  less  distinctness, 
and  simple  sounds  are  often  imitated.  Romanes  reports 
an  interesting  case,  where  the  mental  process  can  be 
traced  out  more  easily  than  usual.  A  child  which  was 
learning  to  talk,  saw  and  heard  a  duck  in  the  water,  and 
said,  "Quack."  Then  it  called  all  birds  and  insects,  and 
also  all  liquids  "quack."  Finally  it  extended  this  term 
also  to  all  coins,  after  seeing  an  eagle  on  a  French  sou. 
Thus  the  child,  by  a  process  of  generalization,  came  to 
designate  a  fly,  wine,  and  a  piece  of  money  by  the  same 
onomatopoetic  word,  although  none  of  them  possessed 
the  characteristic  which  had  led  to  its  adoption. 

The  manufacture  of  words  from  interjections  only 
takes  place  where  imitation  also  comes  into  play,  as, 
e.  g.,  when  the  child  notices  a  rolling  ball  or  wheel,  and 


*  "  Onomatopoetic.     Formed  to   resemble  the    sound  of    the    thing 
signified."  —  Webster's  Unabridged. 


HISTORY   OF   THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF   SPEECH.         525 

says,  *  Rollolo."  The  first  interjection  is  always  formed 
after  hearing  a  noise,  not  simply  from  seeing,  e.  g.,  a 
noiseless  rolling  object;  so  we  must  consider  the  inter- 
jections imitative. 

On  the  whole,  the  way  a  child  learns  to  talk  is  quite 
analogous  to  the  way  it  later  learns  to  write.  Meaning- 
less strokes  and  daubs  are  made,  then  certain  strokes  and 
phonetic  signs  are  imitated.  These  cannot  be  immedi- 
ately united  into  syllables,  and  even  when  they  are,  the 
resulting  word  is  not  understood.  Yet  the  child  could 
see  every  letter  just  as  he  afterwards  learns  to  write  it, 
before  he  learned  to  write  at  all.  In  just  the  same  way, 
the  child  hears  every  sound  before  it  can  understand  the 
syllables  and  words,  and  understands  before  it  can  utter 
them. 

After  children  have  acquired  a  small  number  of  words 
by  imitation,  they  furnish  analogous  and  strictly  logical 
forms  of  their  independent  manufacture.  The  preference 
of  all  children  for  the  weak  conjugation  of  verbs  is  a  case 
in  point.*  The  imagination  is  also  a  very  prominent  fac- 
tor in  word  making. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  much  the  child  can  in- 
dicate by  one  and  the  same  verbal  expression.     By  the 

-*  So  an  English-speaking  child  may  say  "  tookecl "  for  "  took  "  or  "  ta- 
ken," and  "  gived"  for  "given"  or  "gave."  Similarly,  regular  instead 
of  irregular  comparatives  are  sometimes  found  by  analogy,  as  "  gooder  " 
for  "better,"  "badder"  for  "worse."  Preyer's  examples  are,  of 
course,  German  ones. 


526  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

word  "  chair  "  may  be  meant  "  my  chair  is  n't  here,"  "my 
chair  is  broken,"  "  I  want  to  be  lifted  into  the  chair," 
"here  is  a  chair."  Steinthal's  child  (twenty-two  months 
old),  when  it  sees  or  hears  a  barking  dog,  says,  "Barks," 
and  intends  to  indicate  by  this  one  word  the  whole  com- 
plex apparition,  from  its  visible  as  well  as  its  audible 
point  of  view.  This  many-sided  application  of  a  word, 
which  thus  takes  the  place  of  a  whole  sentence,  denotes  a 
much  higher  stage  of  comprehension  than  mere  word- 
making.  For  it  indicates  a  species  of  unconscious  (al- 
though not  necessarily  clear)  judgment.  The  union  of 
ideas  so  as  to  form  a  conscious,  clear  judgment  is  shown 
by  the  formation  of  a  sentence,  whether  this  consists  of 
one  word  or  several.  In  this  connection  the  erroneous 
impression  must  be  corrected  that  all  children,  in  learning 
to  talk,  use  first  substantives  and  then  verbs.  My  child, 
which  was  observed  daily,  used  an  adjective  for  the  first 
time  in  his  twenty-third  month,  in  order  to  express  a 
judgment,  the  first  to  which  he  gave  intelligible  expres- 
sion. He  said,  "Hot!"  in  the  sense  of  "the  milk  is  too 
hot." 

The  way  words  are  employed  in  the  first  formation  of 
sentences  depends  largely  upon  the  adults  by  whom  the 
child  is  surrounded.  Lindner  relates  that  when  his  little 
daughter  was  fourteen  months  old,  she  begged  with  her 
hands  for  a  piece  of  apple ;  and,  in  giving  it  to  her,  the 
word  "  apple  "  was  distinctly  pronounced.  Having  eaten 
the  first  piece,  the  child  begged  for  a  second,  re-enforcing 


HISTORY   OF   THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF   SPEECH.        527 

the  gesture  by  saying,  "  Appu ! "  and  her  petition  was 
again  granted.  Evidently  encouraged  by  her  success,  the 
child  now  used  the  word  "  appu  "  in  the  general  sense  of 
"eat,"  "I  want  to  eat";  "since,"  as  Lindner  says,  "she 
found  that  this  meaning  was  accepted  by  her  friends ; 
otherwise,  the  new  word  would  probably  have  been  lost." 

This  corroborates  my  previous  statement,  that  a  child 
can  easily  learn  to  make  a  logical  use  of  wrong  words. 

Every  child,  in  learning  the  language  of  those  about 
it,  learns  also  their  linguistic  peculiarities,  imitating  the 
accent,  pronunciation,  and  dialect  which  it  hears.  This  is 
so  striking  as  to  seem  like  an  inherited  tendency,  while, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  only  the  voice  is  inherited,  and  the 
rest  vanishes  completely,  if  the  child  is  brought  up  under 
different  conditions. 

We  can  say  that  the  characteristic  of  speech  is  hered- 
itary, as  well  as  the  power  of  articulation.  If,  however, 
in  certain  instances,  the  ear  or  the  tongue  refuses  to  per- 
form its  office,  another  language,  of  pantomime  and  writ- 
ing and  touch,  takes  the  place  of  the  normal  one,  and 
Broca's  center  of  speech  is  never  developed.  We  must 
deny  that  the  mute  child  already  possesses  a  center  of 
speech,  for  this  can  only  be  formed  when  it  hears  speak- 
ing. In  learning  to  talk  there  is  a  gradual  development 
first  of  the  phonetic  center,  then  of  the  syllable  and 
word  center  and  the  dictorium.  The  brain  grows  through 
its  own  activity. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

FIB  ST  SOUNDS  AND  ATTEMPTS  AT  SPEECH  OF  A  CHILD, 
OBSERVED  DAILY  DURING  THE  FIRST  THREE  YEARS 
OF  HIS  LIFE. 

I  give  as  proofs  the  following  observations,  which  I 
have  noted  down  from  Nov.  23,  1877,  the  day  on  which 
my  boy  was  born. 

In  the  first  weeks  the  child  would  often  cry  aloud  and 
long,  as  if  displeased.  The  sounds  seemed  to  resemble  a 
short  u,  followed  by  a  lengthened  eh.  These  were 
uttered  for  five  months  in  the  same  way,  but  more  vig- 
orously. 

Notwithstanding  their  inequality,  these  sounds  are  so 
different  from  each  other,  even  during  the  first  five 
weeks,  that  they  afford  a  sufficient  indication  whether 
the  child  is  hungry,  or  in  pain,  or  the  reverse.  Scream- 
ing, with  eyes  closed  during  hunger,  whining  during 
slight  indisposition,  laughing  at  bright  objects  in  motion, 
that  peculiar  grunting,  together  with  vivid  motion  >  of 
the  arms,  as  signs  of  completed  digestion  and  wetness 
(the  latter  continuing  into  the  seventeenth  month),  must 
be  considered  the  forerunners  of  future  oral  communi- 
cation, in  contradistinction  to  the  sonorous  reflex  move- 


FIRST    SOUNDS   AND   ATTEMPTS   AT   SPEECH.  529 

ments,  such  as  sneezing,  belching,  not  infrequent  snoring, 
sniffing  (during  sucking),  and  other  loud  expirations, 
noticed  already  during  the  first  days,  and  of  as  little  lin- 
guistic value  as  coughing,  and  in  later  times,  clearing  the 
throat. 

On  the  sixth  day  already  the  voice  evinces  much 
power,  especially  when  manifesting  feelings  of  dis- 
pleasure. Moreover,  screaming  becomes  much  more 
frequent,  more  lasting,  and  louder,  when,  instead  of 
human,  diluted  cow's  milk  is  given.  If  more  attention  is 
paid  to  the  baby  (during  the  first  two  months),  he  is 
afterwards  more  inclined  to  scream,  which  he  does  (as 
during  hunger),  otherwise  than  when  announcing  some- 
thing unpleasant,  as  wetness,  the  cries  subsiding  when  in 
consequence  of  having  been  wiped  dry  he  feels  a  certain 
satisfaction.  Otherwise,  the  desire  to  scream  must  be 
considered  (at  any  rate  from  the  tenth  week)  a  sign  of 
health  (or  increase  of  muscle).  Protracted  silence  seems 
to  result  during  this  time  from  slight  indisposition. 
My  boy,  however,  had  no  serious  ailing  lasting  more  than 
a  day. 

On  the  forty-third  day  I  heard  the  first  consonant,  the 
most  distinct  sound  being,  "  Am-ma"  On  the  same  day 
he  uttered  the  vowels,  "a  o"  and  on  the  next  day  we 
were  surprised  by  hearing  him  distinctly  utter,  "Ta-hoo." 

In  the  midst  of  his  unintelligible  cooing,  I  heard  on  the 
forty-sixth  day,  "Go,  ""Oro,"  and  five  days  later,  "Ara.n 

The   syllable   "Ma"  I   heard   by   itself   only    on   the 


530  CONSCIOUS    MOTHERHOOD. 

sixty-fourth  day  amid  screaming ;  later,  "iVy,  ny,  ny" 
and  once,  "A-omb." 

On  the  sixty -ninth  day,  while  hungry,  he  repeated 
distinctly  "Mo  "  and  "JVgo." 

The  manifest  sign  of  pleasure,  "JVabu"  was  distinctly 
uttered  on  the  seventy-eighth  day,  and  later,  "Ah-ee" 
"U-a-o,"  "Eh-o-a,"  in  turn. 

In  the  fifteenth  week  I  heard,  "JVa-na-na  "  and  "Joanna" 
by  way  of  refusal,  and  as  a  sign  of  especial  displeasure 
he  would  continuously  shout,  "  Ua-ua-ua-ua" 

With  the  exception  of  Jc,  no  new  consonants  were 
formed  during  the  fifth  month. 

Stronger  sounds  of  pleasure  appeared,  as  "Ha"  "Bar- 
ha,"  "Ee-yah." 

At  the  age  of  eight  months  he  uttered  other  sounds 
while  screaming.  In  the  ninth  month  there  occurred  the 
sounds,  "Otto"  "Appa"  "Ga-ou-a" 

In  the  eleventh  month  he  correctly  repeated  some 
syllables  impressively  uttered  before  him,  such  as  his 
own  coinage,   "Adda"  when  I  repeated  it. 

In  the  forty-fifth  week  I  noticed  certain  movements 
of  his  lips  and  tongue,  which  seemed  to  be  attempts 
at  repeating  words  spoken  by  others.  As  new  sylla- 
bles, I  mention  "Ta-heh,"  "Dann-teh,"  "N'geh,"  "Dall," 
"Kamm" 

Such  sounds  as  "Ada"  "Ilodda"  "Hatta"  he  seemed 
to  utter  on  perceiving  that  something  disappeared  from 
the  room. 


FIRST   SOUNDS   AND   ATTEMPTS   AT   SPEECH.  531 

In  the  twelfth  month  I  noted  down  the  following 
sounds  :  "Ha-ya,"  "  Ya-ya-ya,"  "Pa-a,"  "Han-na,"  "Mom- 
ma" "Ka"  "Ladn"  together  with  "Atta"  in  various 
modifications.  When  his  name  was  uttered  he  would 
turn  round,  and  although  he  did  so  on  hearing  other 
loud  sounds,   his  face  had  not  the  same  expression. 

In  the  fifty-second  week  he  offered  his  hand  when  bid- 
den to  do  so,  —  a  feat  I  have  seen  a  child  of  seven  months 
perform.  During  this  whole  time,  from  his  birth  for- 
ward, sounds  like  "#/>,"  "#,"  K/Sfc,"  "P<tf,"  none  of  which 
were  ever  uttered  by  him,  had  a  quieting  effect. 

"iVa-na,"  which  he  uttered  while  putting  out  his  arms, 
expressed  some  desire,  and  "Ma-ma"  joy  at  seeing  his 
mother.  Cooing  seemed  to  indicate  desire  of  food,  grunt- 
ing of  evacuation. 

The  most  important  progress  consists  in  the  newly 
awakened  understanding  of  spoken  words,  certain  move- 
ments forming  his  reply  to  words  that  had  been  spoken. 
An  occasional  exchange  of  these  movements  seemed  to 
indicate  that  he  had  forgotten  the  special  one  previously 
made  on  hearing  a  certain  word. 

In  the  fourteenth  month  he  would  often  say,  "  Ta-ta" 
on  being  carried  away.  My  voice  seemed  to  have  made 
the  impression  on  him,  that  he  was  expected  to  do  what 
he  was  bidden.  On  being  asked,  "Where  is  your  cup- 
board ?  "  he  wrould  turn  his  head  and  look  in  the  direction 
of  the  cupboard,  and,  although  not  yet  able  to  walk  by 
himself,  would  pull  the  person  holding  him  by  the  hand 


532  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

through  the  spacious  room,  and  then  open  the  cupboard 
without  assistance.  He  is  fond  of  striking  the  table  with 
his  hands;  imitating  his  movements,  I  said,  "Play  the 
piano."  When  afterwards,  he  being  quiet,  I  said, 
"  Piano,"  without  moving  my  hand,  he  reflected  a  few 
seconds,  and  again  beat  the  table  with  his  hand.  When 
asked  at  the  age  of  fifteen  months,  "Where  is  the  moon? 
The  watch?  The  eye?  The  nose?"  he  raised  his  arm, 
and  spreading  his  fingers,  looked  into  the  different  direc- 
tions. When  I  speak  of  coughing,  he  coughs ;  of  blow- 
ing, he  blows;  of  kicking,  he  stretches  his  legs;  of  light, 
he  blows  into  the  air  towards  the  lamp,  if  it  happens  to  be 
in  the  room,  looking  at  it.  Only  in  consequence  of  fre- 
quent repetition  and  forced  guidance  he  would  nod  his 
head  in  reply  to  "  Yes,"  only  when  sixty-four  weeks 
old,  and  for  months  this  movement  was  made  clumsily, 
whereas  during  "No,  no,"  he  would  shake  his  head  with 
as  much  assurance  as  an  adult. 

The  eighteenth  month  showed  a  great  increase  in 
the  power  of  distinguishing  and  understanding  certain 
words.  "Finger,"  "glass,"  "door,"  "sofa,"  "thermom- 
eter," "  carpet,"  "  biscuit,"  are  correctly  pointed  at. 
Words  spoken  to  him  were  as  yet  seldom  repeated ;  in 
reply  to  "  Mamma,"  he  would  say,  "  Ta"  Although  not 
easily  reproduced  in  writing,  the  sounds  uttered  by 
him  at  this  time  designate,  better  than  before,  desire, 
grief,  joy,  hunger,  obstinacy,  fear. 

In  his  nineteenth  month,  he  took  a  newspaper  from  a 


First  sounds  and  attempts  at  speech.        533 

paper  basket,  spread  it  on  the  floor,  and  lying  down  upon 
it,  face  forward,  uttered  a  variety  of  monotonous  sounds; 
then  tearing  the  paper  into  a  great  many  small  pieces, 
he  betook  himself  to  turning  the  leaves  of  books,  utter- 
ing a  series  of  other  sounds. 

Screams,  such  as  he  gave  forth  when  cold  water  was 
poured  on  him  in  the  bath-tub,  were  repeated  after  the 
first  such  attempt,  already  at  the  sight  of  the  tub,  sponge, 
and  water.  Although  he  would  also  scream  after  being 
put  to  bed,  he  soon  ceased,  on  seeing  its  uselessness. 

Instead  of  saying  "  Ta"  or  "Ba"  in  reply  to  "Pa,"  he 
could  now  repeat  this  syllable  correctly. 

Great  progress  was  noticed  in  the  twentieth  month. 
On  the  five  hundred  and  eighty-fourth  day  the  child  sud- 
denly correctly  repeated,  without  difficulty,  words  of 
two  syllables.  In  the  eighty-third  week,  after  looking 
intently  for  two  minutes  at  a  bird  in  the  garden,  he 
repeated  five  or  six  times,  pretty  fairly,  its  chirping. 
Five  days  later,  taking  a  cow,  roughly  cut  out  of  wood, 
and  no  larger  than  the  bird,  he  moved  it  on  the  table 
to  and  fro,  and  chirped  in  the  manner  of  the  bird  he  had 
seen.  Hearing  others  laugh,  no  matter  at  what,  the  boy 
would  regularly  laugh,  too. 

All  artificially  taught  movements  —  an  evil  not  easily 
avoided  in  our  fashionable  mode  of  education  —  were 
suppressed  as  much  as  possible.  He  indulged  very  much 
in  shouting  aloud,  as  if  he  wanted  to  try  the  strength 
of  his  voice. 


534  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

In  the  twenty-first  month  I  noticed  in  his  utterances 
more  consonants  than  vowels.  In  the  case  of  new  words, 
I  found  it  more  difficult  than  formerly  to  discriminate 
between  his  unwillingness  or  inability  of  imitating  sounds. 
" Me-me"  a  sound  he  had  frequently  uttered  to  designate 
milk,  he  now  transferred  to  biscuit  and  other  kinds  of 
food. 

When,  in  the  twenty-third  month,  I  said  to  him, 
"Drink,"  "Eat,"  "Shut,"  "Open,"  "Pick  it  up,"  "Turn 
round,"  "Sit  down,"  "Run,"  he  mostly  obeyed  immedi- 
ately. The  order  "  Come  ! "  was  less  readily  complied 
with,  but  not  so  much  for  want  of  understanding  as  from 
obstinacy.  On  my  asking  to  show  me  his  beard,  he, 
after  pointing  to  my  beard,  with  some  embarrassment 
put  his  finger  on  that  part  of  his  face  where  he  perceived 
my  beard  to  grow,  at  the  same  time  moving  his  thumb 
and  forefinger  several  times,  as  though  holding  between 
them,  and  tugging  at  a  hair,  as  he  had  had  occasion  to 
do  with  me.  Upon  the  whole,  there  was  an  increase  in 
the  variety  of  articulations,  but  the  power  of  forming 
words  out  of  syllables  was  but  slightly  developed. 
When  preference  wras  given  to  certain  words,  it  was 
mainly  owing  to  his  surroundings,  just  as  adults  imitate 
the  speech,  dialect,  and  even  voice  much  better  of  their 
own  accord,  than  when  asked  to  do  so. 

Before  he  was  two  years  old,  the  words  he  uttered 
could  often  not  be  understood  by  strangers. 

Another  month  brought  with  it  unusual  progress.     He 


FIRST   SOUNDS    AND   ATTEMPTS   AT   SPEECH.  535 

had  become  more  docile,  although  he  did  not  always 
understand  what  was  said  to  him.  On  being  told,  "Open 
the  book,"  he  would  only  tap  the  book  with  his  hand. 
Having  received  a  number  of  presents  on  his  birthday, 
he  would  repeat  the  sound  he  had  uttered  on  that  day 
whenever  he  was  delighted  w7ith  anything.  Having  been 
told  to  blow  on  his  hand,  which  he  had  slightly  hurt, 
he,  when  the  same  afternoon  he  accidentally  knocked  his 
head,  of  his  own  accord  at  once  began  to  blow. 

In  his  twenty-sixth  month,  I  put  before  him  every 
day  a  large  picture  book  with  colored  pictures,  wrhen 
he  would  repeat  the  names  of  such  as  were  unknown  to 
him.  There  was  an  increase  of  words  of  his  own  coin- 
age, most  of  his  sentences  consisting  of  no  more  than 
two  words.  Conception  of  number  was  utterly  wanting. 
The  meaning  of  the  word  "thanks"  he  evidently  did 
not  understand,  as  he  uttered  it  after  having  himself 
poured  out  some  milk. 

In  the  twenty-seventh  month  the  growth  of  his  rea- 
soning powers  became  apparent.  Being  present  at  the 
felling  of  a  large  tree,  he,  on  seeing  it  fall  to  the  ground, 
exclaimed,  "Pick  up!"  Seeing  a  hole  in  a  dressing- 
gown,  he  said,  "  Sew."  During  play  he  often  said  to 
himself  "  Pay  attention."  Being  asked,  while  still  eating, 
"Do  you  like  it?"  he  replied,  "Like  still." 

As  proof  of  the  feeling  of  pity,  I  mention  the  follow- 
ing :  On  seeing  figures  cut  out  of  paper,  he  would  cry, 
amidst  tears,  for  fear  a  head  might  be  cut  off.     With- 


'•gmVBKSITTi 


536  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

out  having  been  influenced  by  any  one,  he  would  exclaim, 
"  Poor  biscuit !  "  when  a  biscuit  was  broken  in  two,  or, 
"  Poor  wood !  "  when  a  piece  of  wood  was  thrown  into 
the  stove. 

Though  often  causing  surprise  by  the  manner  in  which 
he  applied  words  he  had  recently  heard,  he  did  not  al- 
ways employ  them  correctly,  as  well  saying,  "Boiling 
hot,"  not  only  of  milk,  but  also  of  the  fire.  When  wish- 
ing to  eat  or  play,  he  was  more  disposed  to  speak  than 
when  refusing  something,  because  he  would  then  go 
away,  turn  round,  and  turn  his  head.  In  the  case  of 
numbers,  his  memory  still  failed  him,  nor  was  there  as 
yet  ever  a  question  asked  by  him. 

The  twenty-eighth  month  showed  an  increased  power 
of  forming  conceptions,  and  of  the  use  of  words.  Seeing 
an  ox  in  the  slaughter-house,  he  said  "Moo-moo"  and  on 
my  adding,  "Dead,"  he  replied,  "Moo-moo,  dead,"  and 
after  a  pause  of  his  own  accord,  "Slaughtered,"  and  then 
"Blood  out."  He  had  got  into  the  habit  of  striking  in 
sport  those  surrounding  him.  When,  after  having  been 
forbidden  to  do  so,  he  felt  disposed  to  indulge  this  pro- 
clivity, he  said  emphatically,  "Not  beat,"  "Axel"  (his 
name) ,  "  Brave."  The  interrogative  "  Where  ?  "  was  for  a 
long  time  the  only  one  he  had  acquired,  although  he  had 
for  a  long  time  preceding  understood  its  meaning  when 
addressed  to  him.  Some  Italian  words  like  uno,  due, 
tre,  which  he  had  heard  the  natives  pronounce  during  a 
protracted   stay  at   Lake  Garda,    he  repeated  correctly, 


FIRST   SOUNDS   AND   ATTEMPTS   AT   SPEECH.  537 

without  the  least  German  accent ;  some  others  less  accu- 
rately. As  a  proof  of  vivid  imagination,  I  cite  the  fact 
that  he  would  put  to  his  mouth,  as  if  about  to  drink, 
figures  cut  from  newspapers,  and  intended  to  represent 
cups  and  glasses.    , 

The  greatest  progress  I  noticed  in  the  twenty-ninth 
month  was  the  use  of  the  pronoun  "  me,"  instead  of  his 
name.  There  was  also  an  increase  in  his  power  of  deal- 
ing with  numbers.  On  counting  his  nine-pins,  he  seemed 
to  display  a  knowledge  of  addition,  by  saying,  "One, 
one,  one,  one,"  and  then,  "One,  one  more,  one  more." 
Greater  activity  in  questioning  was  also  manifest,  although 
his  store  of  interrogatives  was  still  restricted  to  "  where." 
Instead  of  "two"  he  would  say  "five,"  and  vice  versa; 
the  expression  "too  much"  he  would  apply  correctly, 
bat  also  on  such  occasions  as  when  there  was  too  little 
bread  or  butter.  Seeing  some  one  about  to  light  a  taper, 
he  would  go  for  matches.  When  I  said  to  him,  "  Pick 
up  the  crumbs,"  he  seemed  at  first  not  to  understand,  but 
exclaimed,  suddenly,  "Fetch  broom,"  went  for  the  broom 
and  swept  away  the  crumbs. 

The  thirtieth  month  showed  evidence  of  clearer  con- 
ceptions. Playing  by  himself,  he  would  say,  "  Make  pail 
empty."  Seeing  the  peeling  of  a  roasted  apple,  he  said, 
"Milk,"  also  "Skin,"  recollecting  some  boiled  milk,  al- 
though not  present.  A  similar  expression  was,  "  Church 
rings,"  when  he  heard  the  town  clock  strike.  A  key  was 
dropped.     The  boy  picking  it  up  quickly,  held  it  behind 


538  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

him,  and  replied  to  my  question,  "Where  is  the  key?" 
"No  longer  there,"  with  a  roguish  look.  The  pronoun 
/  had  not  yet  been  uttered.  I  account  for  it  by  the  fact 
that  adults,  speaking  to  babies,  instead  of  using  it,  will 
say,  "Auntie,"  "Grandma,"  etc. 

In  the  thirty-first  month  I  found  him  more  lavish  in  the 
use  of  questions,  and  also  making  some  attempts  to  form 
sentences.  When  he  had  broken  a  flower-pot,  a  wooden 
box,  or  a  glass,  he  always  said  of  his  own  accord,  "Fred- 
erick glue  again  .^ 

In  the  thirty-second  month  I  heard  him,  for  the  first 
time,  say,  "I."  When  he  was  asked,  "Who  is  I?"  he 
answered,  "Axel."  In  his  pronunciation  of  names  of 
some  length  and  of  sentences,  the  influence  and  dialect 
of  his  surroundings  wTould  now  and  then  become  notice- 
able. His  memory  was  improved,  but  somewhat  more 
fastidious.  He  would  forget  some  useless  verses  which 
he  had  been  taught  in  fun,  but  seemed  to  understand 
what  interested  him. 

In  his  thirty-third  month  I  noted  down  as  evidence  of 
his  improved  memory,  that,  being  absent  from  home, 
together  with  his  parents,  he  said  every  evening,  "  Sol- 
diers will  play  soon,"  although  there  was  no  trace  of  a 
soldier.  Noticing  a  cock  in  his  picture  book,  he  said 
slowly,  "  That  is  the  cock  —  he  's  always  coming  — 
takes  away  the  whole  piece  out  of  the  hand,  and  runs 
away " ;  all  this  with  reference  to  the  feeding  of  the 
chickens,   when   the    cock   had    run   away   with   a  piece 


FIRST   SOUNDS   AND   ATTEMPTS   AT   SPEECH.  539 

of  bread.  At  breakfast  he  stopped  eating  to  observe 
the  movements  of  a  fly,  saying,  "  Now  goes  to  the 
newspaper  —  goes  into  the  milk  —  away  animal  —  go 
away  —  among  the  coffee."  But  not  only  animals,  but 
other  moving  objects,  such  as  locomotives,  excited  his 
attention. 

Although  continuing  my  observations  after  the  one 
thousandth  day,  I  did  not  always  note  them  down. 
During  the  three  succeeding  months  the  child  spoke 
more  rarely  of  himself  in  the  third  person.  He  also 
made  use  of  the  interrogative  "  Wlty  ? "  Hearing  the 
creaking  of  a  wheel,  he  asked,  "What  makes  the  noise ?" 
Questioning  now  became  very  frequent,  producing  after 
every  answer,  which  was  never  denied,  new  ones, 
which  to  adults  would  seem  idle.  Before  the  end  of 
his  third  year  I  do  not  remember  to  ever  have  heard 
him  ask,  "When?"  W^ords  like  "salon,"  "orange," 
and  the  French  "  age"  appear  unsurmountable  diffi- 
culties. A  question,  "Who  taught  you  that?"  he 
regularly  answered,  "I  taught  myself."  Frequent  gram- 
matical mistakes  occurred  as  a  matter  of  course.  When 
asked,  "Who  speaks  like  that?"  He  said  deliberately, 
and  amidst  pauses,  "  Not  —  not  —  not  —  not  —  not  — 
nobody." 

Whatever  observations  I  have  noted  down  have  been 
strictly  verified  by  myself;  frequent  cross-examinations 
of  nurses  and  other  persons  not  used  to  scientific  inquiry 
proving  the  unsatisfactoriness  of  their  evidence,  especially 


540  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

with  regard  to  the  child's  "  forwardness."  Much  aid  was 
afforded  me  by  the  child's  mother,  who  is  particularly 
endowed  with  the  talent  of  observation.  Each  observa- 
tion was  at  once  entered  into  a  journal  ever  at  hand. 
Every  artificial  exertion  was  avoided,  nor  was  the  child 
aware  that  it  was  observed.  As  much  as  was  possible, 
all  artificial  training  was  prevented,  nor  was  my  child 
tortured  with  learning  by  heart  songs  and  such  stuff  as 
he  could  not  understand. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  EGO   SENTIMENT. 

Before  a  child  learns  that  the  several  members  of  its 
body  are  a  part  of  itself,  it  must  pass  through  many  ex- 
periences, most  of  them  more  or  less  painful.  My  own 
child  was  four  hundred  and  eight  days  old,  when,  stand- 
ing in  its  bed,  it  bit  its  own  arm  until  it  screamed.  Even 
in  its  twenty-third  month  it  offered  a  biscuit  to  its  own 
foot.  Vierordt's  conclusion  that  a  child  begins  in  its 
third  month  to  discriminate  between  itself  and  the  rest 
of  the  world,  is  not  borne  out  by  my  experience.  My 
child  seemed  to  discover  in  the  forty-first  week  that  it 
was  one  thing  to  strike  the  table,  another  to  strike  its 
own  head.  When  fully  fifteen  months  old  it  wondered  at 
its  own  experiment  of  pushing  its  head  against  the  right 
and  left  hands  it  held  just  above  the  corresponding  ears. 
Only  just  previously  it  had  found  out,  by  biting,  the 
difference  between  its  own  and  other  people's  fingers.  It 
is  a  memorable  day  in  the  life  of  the  child  when  it  finds 
out  that  it  can  cause  an  effect,  say,  in  tearing  a  piece  of 
paper.  The  satisfaction  it  takes  in  such  discoveries  ac- 
counts for  the  patience  and  seriousness  with  which  it  will 


542  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

repeat  any  little  act  that  shows  the  child  to  be  something 
of  a  free  agent. 

People  call  this  playing ;  in  truth,  it  is  experimenting. 
As  the  child  finds  that  it  is  a  cause,  its  ego  sentiment 
arises.  My  own  child  began  to  discriminate  between 
its  own  body  and  other  things  as  follows  :  In  the  seven- 
teenth week  the  child  noticed  both  an  object  to  be 
grasped  and  the  grasping  hand  itself,  especially  when 
the  grasp  was  successful ;  a  week  later  it  noticed  its  fin- 
gers ;  in  the  twenty-third  week  the  child  observed  that 
one  of  its  hands  had  seized  the  other ;  a  week  later  it 
wondered  at  the  difference  between  its  hand  and  a  glove ; 
in  the  thirty-second  week  it  contemplated  its  raised  legs 
and  feet  as  something  strange ;  in  its  thirty-fifth  week 
the  child  tried  with  both  hands  to  seize  its  own  foot  and 
lift  it  to  its  mouth ;  in  the  thirty-sixth  week  it  looked 
more  upon  other  things  than  at  its  own  hands  and  feet ; 
in  its  fifty-fifth  week  the  child  noticed  a  person  eating, 
felt  the  person's  face  and  its  own  head,  and  then  recog- 
nized its  own  hands ;  it  compared  its  own  fingers  with 
those  of  other  people.  In  its  sixty-second  week  it  played 
with  its  own  hands,  as  if  they  were  independent  play- 
things. 

When  ten  weeks  old  my  boy  did  not  recognize  his 
own  picture  in  a  mirror.  Only  on  the  one  hundred 
and  thirteenth  day  he  looked  at  the  picture  with  atten- 
tion ;  three  days  later  he  smiled  at  the  picture ;  in  the 
twenty-fourth   week   he   recognized   me   in   the   mirror; 


DEVELOPMENT    OF   THE    EGO    SENTIMENT.  543 

in  the  twenty-sixth  week  he  compared  my  picture  in 
the  mirror  with  the  original  that  stood  beside  him ;  in 
the  fifty-seventh  week  he  tried  to  find  himself  behind 
a  hand- mirror  I  held  before  him.  On  the  four  hun- 
dred and  second  'day  I  showed  him  his  own  photograph 
and  his  picture  in  the  mirror,  the  effect  being  disquieting; 
but  in  the  sixtieth  week  the  child  noticed  the  difference 
between  its  mother  and  her  picture  in  the  mirror.  In 
the  sixty-seventh  week  the  boy  made  grimaces  before 
a  mirror;  in  the  sixty-ninth  week  he  showed  pleasure 
at  beholding  himself  in  the  mirror.  The  experiment 
was  then  discontinued ;  the  child  had  manifestly  learned 
to  discriminate,  in  a  measure,  between  itself  and  its 
picture. 

Far  more  important  for  the  development  of  the  ego 
sentiment  is  the  use  of  words.  But  the  ego  sentiment 
and  the  use  of  the  pronoun  /  are  by  no  means  identical. 
The  use  of  the  I  merely  helps  to  differentiate  and  mark 
the  ego  sentiment.  A  little  girl  thirty  months  old  said, 
"Lillie  my  tair,"  for  "my  chair";  my  own  boy,  then 
thirty-one  months  old,  spoke  of  himself  as  "Axel,"  "I," 
"he,"  and  by  omitting  all  pronouns,  but  this  transitive 
stage  was  brief.  Of  course,  all  children  begin  rather 
late  to  speak  of  themselves  and  their  future,  when  the 
ego  sentiment  has  become  fully  self-conscious.  All  the 
steps  indicated  are  on  converging  lines,  that  meet  in  the 
perfect  feeling  of  the  /  as  a  distinct  person,  which  is  not 
to  be  confounded  with  the  world  at  large. 


544  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

What  is  the  significance  of  the  child's  regarding  his 
own  hands,  feet,  and  teeth  as  extra  personal  playthings, 
and  of  his  biting  his  arm  as  he  bites  other  objects? 
What  part  "regards"? 

Where  resides  the  biting  impulse  ?  Evidently  the  en- 
tity of  the  head  diners  from  that  of  the  body.  The 
brain  ego  is  a  different  one  from  the  spinal  marrow 
ego  (Pfliiger's  "  spinal  marrow  soul ") .  The  brain  ego 
sees,  hears,  tastes,  smells  and  feels ;  the  spinal  ego 
feels  only.  And  both  are,  at  first  (so  long  as  they  are 
connected  with  each  other  only  loosely,  organically  and 
functionally  not  at  all),  quite  isolated  in  their  action. 

Acephalic  infants,  who  lived  for  hours  and  even  for 
days,  could  suck,  could  cry,  move  their  limbs,  and  feel, 
for  when  they  were  hungry  they  would  seize  upon  and 
suck  an  object  put  into  their  mouths,  and  would  cease 
crying  while  so  doing.  On  the  other  hand,  could  a  babe 
be  born  with  a  brain  and  without  spinal  marrow,  and  live, 
it  would  not  be  able  to  move  its  limbs.  If,  therefore,  a 
normal  nursling  plays  with  its  own  toes  and  bites  his 
arm  as  if  it  were  a  cracker,  this  proves  that  the  brain, 
with  its  perceptive  apparatus,  is  independent  of  the  spinal 
system.  And  in  the  fact  that  acephalic  new-born  human 
beings  and  eviscerated  lower  animals  move  their  limbs, 
cry,  suck,  and  respond  to  reflex  movements,  quite  the 
same  as  if  completely  organized,  lies  the  proof  that  the 
spinal  system,  including  the  cervical  (marrow)  (cerebel- 
lum) ,  is  at  first  independent  of  the  cerebral  hemispheres. 


DEVELOPMENT    OF   THE    EGO    SENTIMENT.  545 

Now,  however,  it  is  unquestioned  that  the  brainless 
(acephalic)  child,  which  cries,  sucks,  moves  its  limbs, 
discriminates  between  comfort  and  discomfort,  has  still 
an  individuality,  an  ego.  Hence,  we  must  necessarily 
admit  two  egos  in  the  child  that  has  both  brain  and 
spinal  system,  and  finds  his  own  arm  savory  and  bit- 
able  ;  but  if  two,  why  not  more?  In  the  beginning, 
when  the  visual,  auditory,  olfactory,  and  gustatory  nerve 
centers  in  the  brain  are  still  imperfectly  developed,  each 
of  those  perceives  for  itself,  since  the  various  conceptions 
in  the  various  sense  districts  are  not  yet  in  communica- 
tion with  each  other,  just  as  the  spinal  system  fails  at 
first,  or  nearly  fails,  to  report  to  the  brain  what  it  feels : 
for  example,  the  effect  of  a  pin  sticking  into  the  skin, 
for  the  new-born  usually  do  not  react  against  such  im- 
pressions. It  is  only  after  the  frequently  simultaneous 
occurrence  of  separate  sense  impressions,  as  taste,  touch, 
hearing,  seeing,  smelling,  that  the  connecting  fibers  are 
developed  between  the  different  centers  of  special  sense, 
and  then  only  can  the  different  centers  of  conception,  as 
it  were,  ego  formers,  proceed  from  the  ordinary  notion- 
forming  power  to  the  notion  of  the  unified  ego,  which 
is  an  abstract  idea. 

This  abstract  conception  of  self,  or  the  ego,  an  idea 
possible  only  to  the  thinking  adult,  exists  precisely  as 
other  notions  exist ;  namely,  as  the  result  of  the  conjunc- 
tion of  single  conceptions ;  as,  for  example,  the  forest 
exists  by  the  presence  of  the  individual  trees. 


546  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

The  subordinate  egos,  which  represent  the  separate 
senses,  are,  in  the  case  of  the  little  child,  not  yet  blended 
together,  because  he  lacks  the  power  of  abstraction. 
The  sympathetic  mutual  excitation  of  the  sensory  centers 
by  single  excitations  is  not  yet  possible,  because  these 
centers  are  not  stamped  with  enough  memories,  nor  are 
the  cerebral  fibers  connecting  them  abundant  enough. 

The  special  perceptions  of  all  sense  centers  have,  with 
all  beings,  whether  fully  endowed  or  possessing  the  use 
of  either  three  or  four  senses,  the  common  quality  of 
taking  place  under  conditions  of  time,  space,  and  causa- 
tion. This  common  quality  presupposes  similar  processes 
in  each  separate  sense  center  of  the  highest  order. 

Excitation  of  one  of  these  centers  easily  occasions  sim- 
ilar excitations  in  the  centers  which  have  already  been 
many  times  simultaneously  moved  by  impressions  from 
the  same  objects,  and  it  is  this  contemporaneous  excite- 
ment of  all  those  sense  nerves  which  connect  together  the 
sense  centers  in  the  brain,  which  finally  calls  into  being 
the  complete  idea  of  the  ego. 

The  ego  does  not,  then,  according  to  this  view,  exist 
as  a  unit,  as  an  undivided  and  uninterrupted  entity  ;  it 
exists  only  when  the  egos  of  the  separate  senses  are 
awake  out  of  which  it  is  abstracted,  and  it  vanishes 
otherwise ;  for  example,  during  a  dreamless  sleep.  In 
the  waking  state  it  is  there  as  the  result  of  central  nerve 
activity  and  alertness.  But  above  all,  the  ego  is  not 
a  sum,  for   this   presupposes   the   interchangeability   of 


FINAL   RESULTS.  547 

the  component  parts  ;  and  clearly  the  seeing  ego  can- 
not be  replaced  by  the  hearing  ego,  any  more  than  this 
by  the  smelling  ego,  etc.  The  sum  of  the  individual 
leaves,  stems,  blossoms,  and  roots  of  the  plant  is  far 
from  being  the  plant.  They  must  be  arranged  and  re- 
lated in  a  special  manner.  So,  also,  it  does  not  suffice 
to  add  together  the  characteristics  common  to  the  indi- 
vidual senses,  in  order  to  produce  out  of  this  sum  the 
administrative  and  governing  ego.  These  result  rather 
from  the  increasing  number  and  manifoldness  of  the 
sense  impressions,  a  constant  growth  of  the  gray  sub- 
stance of  the  child's  cerebrum,  a  rapid  increase  of  the 
inter-central  connecting  nerves,  and  thereby  an  easier 
association  of  ideas,  by  means  of  which  the  unity  of 
the  child's  sensations,  with  his  thinking  and  willing,  is 
brought  about.  This  unity  is  the  /,  the  ego,  the  self, 
the  perceiving  and  feeling,  the  desiring  and  determining, 

the  recognizing  and  thinking  /. 

i 

FINAL  RESULTS. 

Of  all  the  facts  established  by  my  experiments  and 
observations,  none  conflict  more  with  traditional  opinion 
than  does  the  truth  that  ideas  may  be  formed  without 
the  medium  of  language.  At  the  very  beginning  of  life 
man  discriminates  between  pleasure  and  the  opposite, 
and  has  definite  sensations.  The  impression  made  by 
these  sensations  in  their  connection  with  congenital  mo- 
tions leads  to  the  growth  of  memory.     These  congenital 


548  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

motions  are  the  starting-point  of  the  infant  mind,  which 
discriminates  between  the  motions  both  as  to  time  and 
space.  The  infant  soon  learns  the  difference  between 
"  sweet "  and  "  nursing " ;  it  learns  also  the  difference 
between  feeding  on  the  right  or  left  breast,  after  one 
trial.  This  is  the  first  act  of  the  infant  mind,  its  first 
perception;  that  is,  the  infant  has  perceived  the  differ- 
ence in  time  and  place  between  a  sensation  (Empfin- 
dung) .  As  the  objects  of  the  infant  perception  multiply, 
the  infant  mind  begins  to  discover  causes.  Its  sensa- 
tion becomes  a  mental  perception,  one  of  the  first  be- 
ing to  mark  the  specific,  white,  warm,  sweet  fluid.  One 
of  these  notions  excites  the  others ;  the  child  has  a  con- 
cept ;  for  a  concept  (Begriff)  is  a  combining  of  separate 
notions.  Notions  are  perceived,  and  so  firmly  asso- 
ciated as  to  lead  to  a  concept  from  a  single  notion. 
No  language  is  needed  in  this  process.  Deaf  infants 
are,  in  this  respect,  like  infants  that  have  all  the 
senses. 

These  concepts  are  not  congenital,  but  inherited,  very 
much  as  are  the  beard  and  the  teeth.  As  the  teeth  differ 
from  the  tooth  rudiments  of  the  new-born  infant,  so  the 
concepts  of  man,  clearly  defined  by  words,  differ  from  the 
ill-defined  concepts  of  the  speechless  infant.  This  dis- 
poses of  the  old  doctrine  of  innate  ideas ;  they  are  not 
congenital,  but  inherited.  The  main  point  is  the  con- 
genital talent  for  perceptions  and  concepts,  that  is,  the 
congenital  mind.     By  talent  or  foundation  no  more  is  to 


J?INAL  RESULTS.  549 

be  understood  than  a  uniform  mode  of  reaction  or  excita- 
bility, which  in  many  succeeding  generations  has  com- 
bined similar  nervous  activities.  The  brain  enters  the 
world  with  many  stamps  upon  it,  some  of  them  distinct, 
others  indistinct.  Each  ancestor  adds  his  own  to  the 
stock.  The  useless  stamps  are  extinguished  by  the  use- 
ful stamps.  But  the  arrangement  of  sense  impressions 
is  a  mental  act  quite  independent  of  speech,  and  the 
capacity  for  this  act  precedes  the  activity  of  the  senses, 
as  Kant  was  the  first  to  perceive. 

I  affirm,  on  the  basis  of  my  own  observations,  that  as  a 
child  can  average  its  sense-perceptions,  both  as  to  time 
and  place,  without  the  use  of  words  or  other  symbols, 
even  so  it  can  form  concepts  and  operate  logically  with- 
out the  aid  of  language.  This  discovery  was  made  by 
Ilelinholtz.  What  he  calls  "  unconscious  conclusions  "  is 
a  mental  process  that  begins  in  the  new-born  infant  with 
the  activity  of  the  senses.  Perhaps  one  might  say  "un- 
expressed," or  "  speechless  conclusions."  Such  percep- 
tions, concepts,  judgments,  and  conclusions  may  be  in- 
herited, especially  such  as  one's  ancestors  have  frequently 
experienced,  not  only  without  the  use  of  language,  but 
also  without  the  employment  of  will-power.  One  cannot 
supply  an  inherited  defect,  nor  get  rid  of  the  inherited 
mind.  The  talent  for  concepts  and  some  of  the  first  con- 
cepts are  congenital ;  new  concepts  depend  on  new  per- 
ceptions or  experience,  and  begin  before  children  learn 
to   speak.     The  new-born  child  possesses  the  talent  for 


550  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

forming  concepts,  as  the  young  chicken  just  out  of  its 
egg  possesses  the  power  to  lay  eggs. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  many  concepts  must  be  formed 
before  the  child  can  learn  to  speak.  Every  child  dis- 
covers the  specific  method  of  expressing  concepts  in  ar- 
ticulate sounds,  but  it  does  not  invent  this  method ;  but 
if  it  grows  up  with  speaking  persons,  the  child  will  prac- 
tice this  method  without  instruction.  A  child  that  lacks 
the  sense  of  hearing  will  have  to  learn  speaking  very 
much  as  most  children  learn  writing,  —  by  imitation.  I 
think  that  the  first  firm  combination  of  a  concept  and  a 
syllable  or  a  word  is  brought  about  by  imitation  only. 
This  accomplished,  the  child  makes  combinations  of  its 
own,  but  rather  less  than  is  generally  assumed.  No  one 
possesses  that  congenital  genius  which  invents  articulate 
speech ;  it  is  wonderful  enough  that  imitation  suffices  to 
teach  a  child  how  to  speak.  I  have  investigated  the 
conditions  of  this  imitation  of  sounds  and  this  learning 
to  speak,  and  find,  after  a  survey  of  the  entire  field,  that 
every  known  form  of  speech  disturbance  in  adults  has  its 
counterpart  in  the  child  that  learns  speaking. 

The  small  child  cannot  as  yet  speak  correctly,  because 
its  organs  of  speech  are  imperfectly  developed ;  the  dis- 
abled adult  can  no  longer  speak  correctly,  because  his 
organs  of  speech  are  more  or  less  impaired.  The  par- 
allel is  perfect,  and  leads  to  several  inferences :  A  nor- 
mal infant  understands  spoken  language  much  sooner 
than  it  can  reproduce  the  sounds,  syllables,  and  words   it 


Final  results.  551 

has  heard;  a  normal  child,  before  learning  to  speak  or 
to  reproduce  spoken  sounds  correctly ,  forms  spontaneously 
fully  or  nearly  all  the  sounds  of  its  future  language,  and 
many  besides,  and  takes  delight  therein;  the  sequence  of 
sounds  as  produced  by  the  infant  differs  in  individuals, 
and  is  not  determined  by  the  principle  of  the  least  effort. 
It  depends  on  the  brain,  the  teeth,  the  size  of  the  tongue, 
etc.  But  the  rule  of  the  least  effort  operates  later  on  in 
the  deliberate  formations  of  sound  and  in  the  language 
experiments. 

In  every  complicated  muscular  motion  the  more  diffi- 
cult combinations  are  acquired  last,  as  in  dancing.  Inher- 
itance has  nothing  to  do  with  this.  For  every  child  can 
fully  master  any  particular  language,  provided  it  hears 
only  that  language  from  the  hour  of  birth.  The  plas- 
ticity of  the  congenital  organs  of  speech  is  very  consider- 
able. It  is  not  my  purpose  to  trace  the  influence  of  lan- 
guage upon  the  intellectual  development  of  the  child. 
But  the  questions  asked  by  a  child  are  usually  under- 
rated. When  children  begin  to  speak,  they  ask  innumer- 
able whys.  These  questions  are  entitled  to  a  candid 
answer.  Proper  answers  will  lead  to  very  intelligent 
questions,  especially  when  the  child  is  from  five  to  seven 
years  old.  Joking  or  foolish  answers  lead  to  silly  ques- 
tions and  illogical  thinking.  The  only  fable  or  myth 
I  tell  my  child  is  the  story  about  the  stork  bringing  the 
babies  and  all  the  rest. 

The  ego  sentiment  in  the  child  does  not  begin  with  its 


552  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

use  of  the  word  I  (the  lis  used  sooner  or  later,  according 
as  the  persons  dealing  with  the  child  speak  of  themselves 
and  one  another  in  pronouns  or  by  name) ,  but  after  a 
long  line  of  experiences  the  ego  is  distinguished  from 
the  non-ego  by  habituating  the  child  to  its  own  hands, 
feet,  arms,  legs,  and  body.  In  the  beginning  these  are 
foreign  objects  to  the  child ;  gradually  they  lose  the 
charm  of  novelty ;  the  child  receives  impressions  from 
the  world  at  large,  and  this  leads  to  the  ego  sentiment  in 
the  child.  Thus  the  child  rises  above  the  state  of  animal 
dependence,  particularly  by  its  language.  But  even 
in  the  fully  developed  ego  sentiment  of  the  responsible 
adult,  there  is  great  satisfaction  in  recalling  one's  early 
childhood.  For  this  teaches  us  our  intimate  relations  to 
all  living  creation.^  However  we  rise,  we  seek  in  vain  for 
a  door  into  another  world.  But  the  mere,  thought  of 
such  another  world  shows  the  vast  superiority  of  man 
over  his  fellow-creatures.  The  key  to  an  understanding 
of  the  great  mystery  as  to  the  connection  of  these  ex- 
tremes is  found  in  the  history  of  the  development  that 
marks  the  soul  of  the  child. 

Prof.  Thierry  William  Preyer,  the  eminent  physiolo- 
gist, was  born  at  Manchester,  England,  on  July  4, 
1841,  received  his  education  in  Germany,  studied  medi- 
cine in  Germany,  Austria,  and  France,  joined  the  uni- 
versity at  Bonn,  in  1865,  as  lecturer  in  zoochemistry  and 
zoophysics,  in  1867  as  lecturer  in  physiology.  In  1869, 
he  accepted   a  professorship  in   Jena.     He  published  a 


DIARY  OF  THE  BARONESS  OF  TAUBE.       553 

number  of  new  discoveries,  and  also,  in  1877,  a  new 
theory  of  sleep.  In  1881,  he  published  the  first  edition 
of  his  famous  work,  "  Die  Seele  des  Kindes."  He  had 
previously  published  the  "  Physiologic  des  Embryo." 
Both  are  entirely  new.  In  1885  he  explained  mind  read- 
ing. Prof.  Preyer  denies  that  the  soul  of  a  new-born 
infant  is  a  blank,  and  holds  that  it  bears  upon  it  the 
stamp  of  many  preceding  generations.  Indeed,  he  thinks 
inherited  qualities  quite  as  important  as  the  child's  own 
activity. 

DIARY  OF  THE  BARONESS  OF  TAUBE,  IN  ESTHLAND, 
DAUGHTER  OF  THE  DISTINGUISHED  COUNT  OF 
KEYSERLING. 

At  the  end  of  his  work,  Preyer  refers  once  more  to 
the  importance  of  keeping  diaries,  beginning  at  the  cra- 
dle, mentioning  the  works  of  H.  Semming,  I.  B.  Perez, 
also  that  of  the  biologist,  Fred.  Tiedeman,  Thierri 
Tiedeman  et  la  science  de  V enfant  Mes  deux  chats.  He 
presents  the  following  abstracts  from  the  diary  of  the 
Baroness  Taube  :  — 

During  the  first  five  months  I  heard  all  the  vowels 
when  my  boy  was  crying,  the  sound  a  being  the  first  I 
most  repeated ;  of  the  consonants,  he  pronounced  g  at 
the  seventh  week.  If  discontented,  he  said,  ge  ge.  The 
syllables,  agow-agoe,  tie,  on,  ogo,  i,  a,  were  repeated  when 
he  was  in  good  humor,  also  the  sound  of  I  or  ill.  With 
my  daughter  it  was  lay,  but  up  to  the  tenth  month   I 


554  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

heard  no  other  consonants  than  g,  b,  w,  very  seldom  ?, 
and  finally  m. 

My  boy  sounded  at  the  seventh  month  distinctly  r,  grr, 
grrr  and  d,  connected  with  dirr,  dirrr.  They  indicated 
discomfort,  excitement,  and  sleepiness,  which  he  con- 
tinued into  his  fourth  year.  At  the  ninth  month  he 
supplements  with  dada,  baba,  bob  «,  also  ago  and  b.  I 
recognize  in  this  a  kind  of  conscious  attempt  to  speak, 
because  he  applies  this  sound  in  seeing  something  new, 
or  the  dog  and  cat  which  he  observes  very  attentively, 
saying,  b  o.  If  some  one  is  called,  he  says,  very  loud, 
O  or  oe.  This  indicates  his  first  act  of  imitation, 
though  since  the  eighth  month  he  had  begun  to  copy 
the  faces  and  grimaces  of  the  adults  (since  then  strongly 
checked  in  the  adults).  He  also  understood  words. 
When  the  dog  is  called  by  name,  he  turns  his  head 
towards  him.  At  the  tenth  month  the  word  jpap-ba  is 
repeated,  without  meaning.  If  he  is  asked  to  pat  a 
cake,  he  claps  his  hands  at  once.  In  the  eleventh 
month  he  says  dadadada,  when  discontented.  When 
he  sees  a  person,  he  stretches  out  a  hand  and  beckons. 
In  the  twelfth  month  he  observes  the  lip  movements  of 
speaking  persons  very  closely,  puts  his  finger  on  his 
mouth,  and  tries  to  imitate. 

Wheu  ten  months  old,  teething  began.  When  eleven 
months,  he  was  for  the  first  time  carried  outdoors.  The 
sounds  of  aga  ga  and  gougag  are  again  used.  He  begins 
to  creep,  but  in  falling  often  he  says  in  a  very  amusing 
way,  ach-ach-ach. 


DIARY  OE   THE   BARONESS   OF   TAUBE.  555 

At  the  age  of  eleven  and  one  half  months,  a  great 
progress  is  visible.  He  is  much  out-of-doors,  and  likes 
to  see  horses,  hens,  and  ducks.  Seeing  hens,  he  says, 
gog-gog,  and  imitates  crowing.  He  has  lost  the  word 
rf  papa,"  and  if  demanded  to  say  papa,  he  says  wau-wau. 
In  hearing  people  coughing,  he  does  the  same. 

Od  ado  ad  is  frequently  used ;  also  when  he  looks 
at  pictures.  After  the  first  year,  he  was  often  enter- 
tained. Since  then  he  develops  rapidly.  If  ge-ga-gack 
is  sung  to  him,  he  repeats  gack.  He  begins  to  associate 
sounds  with  objects,  mostly  on  account  of  the  desire  to 
perform  sounds.  He  calls  the  ducks  gak  gdk,  imitates 
the  rooster,  calls  the  dog  as  learned  from  his  nurse.  I 
roll  his  carriage,  and  he  says  boo,  and  shows  the  direction 
where  he  wants  to  go.  In  seeing  a  horse,  he  says  prr, 
—  also  told  by  the  nurse.* 

The  baroness  says  :  I  think  it  is  a  mistake  to  say  that 
the  child  makes  its  own  language.  He  learns  to  speak 
partly  because  he  is  told  the  words,  and  partly  from  his 
own  imitations  of  sound ;  for  example,  of  animals  and 
misrepresentations  of  the  language  of  adults. 

Thirteen  months  old  he  calls  all  objects  and  pictures 
some  days  dodo  or  loto,  and  suddenly  everything  niana, 
a  word  signifying  " nurse,"  which  he  hears  often.  "Papa" 
is  not  said,  but  "  mamma,"  yet  without  any  understanding. 

[* The  remarks  "  told"  by  the  baroness  show  that  she  recognizes  the 
difference  between  an  original  and  an  imitated  expression,  of  which 
Preyer  and  myself  speak  repeatedly.  — The  Translator.] 


556  CONSCIOUS  MOTHERHOOD. 

The  word  w  niana  *  becomes  now  the  sound  through 
which  he  expresses  his  desires  of  nourishment  and  any- 
thing else.  At  fourteen  months  he  recognizes  the  pic- 
tures in  his  picture  book,  and  refers  to  them  in  the  pre- 
viously mentioned  sound.  He  recognized  at  once  in  a 
neighboring  house  the  picture  of  horses,  though  hung  up 
very  high,  by  saying prr. 

He  now  calls  his  nurse,  to  whom  he  is  much  attached, 
niana,  and  myself  mama,  but  is  not  sure  of  the  name. 
He  exercises  himself  very  much  in  performing  sounds, 
especially  in  the  morning  early.  He  expresses  refusal 
by  the  shaking  of  the  head,  which  is  original ;  he  is  not 
aware  of  nodding,  learning  it  quite  late. 

The  nurse  speaks  with  me  about  M  Caro,"  the  dog,  and 
the  child  says  woo,  woo,  showing  that  he  understood  our 
talk.  If  the  grandma  says,  "Give  me  your  little  hand," 
he  does  it.  He  tries  very  hard  to  pronounce  rightly,  the 
sound  gr  seeming  very  difficult. 

At  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  month  the  amount  of  his 
words  increases  rapidly.  He  plays  outside,  and  his 
sounds  and  words  begin  to  be  associated  to  ideas.  At 
night  he  says,  appa,  that  is,  "  Give  me  a  drink."  He  says 
ball,  stone,  flower,  roast  meat,  by  leaving  out  a  consonant. 

At  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  month  he  calls  me 
mama9»im&  his  father  papa;  his  grandma,  grrra. 

At  fifteen  months,  he  says  "good  day,"  but  not  always 
adjusted  to  the  time.  He  likes  stories  told  to  him,  and 
wants  to  know  about  the  pictures  in  his  books. 


DIARY  OF  THE  BARONESS  OF  TAUBE.        557 

To  be  lifted  up  in  his  chair,  he  calls  ilppa;  to  go  down, 
paly. 

He  begins  to  lift  himself  up,  and  to  hold  himself  on 
chairs. 

He  loves  horses  passionately,  and  calls  them  Icoppa, 
but  likewise  so  my  golden  hair-pins.  Berries  he  calls 
mamee.  Insects,  to  which  he  pays  a  great  attention  and 
a  keen  eye,  he  calls  patika,  — their  proper  name  is  esth- 
land.  He  calls  big  birds  different  from  small  birds, 
papagoi,  or  gog,  or  gacJc.  His  own  picture  in  the  mir- 
ror he  calls  titta,  the  name  for  child ;  but  I  do  not  know 
if  he  recognizes  himself  in  it.  Once  he  heard  me  call 
some  one  in  the  garden  ;  he  imitated  me  at  once  ;  and 
when  asked,  "How  does  mamma9"  he  understood  this 
at  once,  and  in  pursing  his  mouth  he  tried  to  copy  me. 
He  does  not  like  any  change  in  his  surroundings.  If 
some  one  plays  the  piano,  he  sings  with  a  pursed  mouth 
but  a  harsh  voice.     Pie  likes  to  dance,  and  keeps  time. 

He  likes  to  play  with  apples,  and  calls  them  "balls." 
Yesterday  he  had  for  dinner  apple  sauce ;  he  recognized 
the  apple  at  once,  and  said,  "Ball." 

Sixteenth  month.  Mama  opaty,  wThich  means  "play 
piano";  he  says  this  very  often,  sometimes  in  a  com- 
manding voice.  If  I  do  not  consent  at  once,  he  imi- 
tates  playing  with  his  hands,  and  begs,  latata  tatala. 
He  likes  singing,  points  out  some  special  notes,  and  sings 
some  himself. 

Seventeenth   month.     He   pronounces   his    name,    and 


558  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

when  asked,  "Where  is  Adolph?"  he  points  to  him- 
self. Being  called  always  in  the  third  person,  he  does 
not  know  of  pronouns. 

In  removing  grapes  he  calls  them  at  once  mammuts, 
the  name  for  "  berries " ;  and  when  asked  about  their 
taste,  he  pressed  his  hand  in  comical  ecstasy  upon  his 
heart,  saying,  ach,  ach.  At  eighteen  months  old  he  un- 
derstands and  answers  questions;  for  example,  "Where 
are  you  going  ;  to  bed  ?  "  "  Who  gave  you  this  ;  mam- 
ma or  papa  ?  "  He  pronounces  every  word,  and  if  not 
quite  right,  and  some  one  corrects  him,  he  speaks  it 
quite  correctly.  His  sentences  are  composed  of  the 
noun  and  verb  or  adjective,  very  often  using,  like 
Preyer's  child,  one  single  word.  If  others  speak  of  him, 
he  repeats  the  last  words.  He  uses  the  word  "no," 
but  not  "  yes."  This  he  expresses  in  repeating  the  ques- 
tion ;  for  example,  "Do  you  want  a  piece  of  bread?" 
"Bread?"  He  gives  names  to  his  dolls,  as  grandma, 
grandpa,  uncle,  gardener,  cook,  etc. 

At  eighteen  months  he  begins  to  draw,  imagining  to 
draw  all  sorts  of  animals,  such  as  he  has  in  his  ark.  In 
making  a  number  of  lines  he  called  out,  "Some  storks, 
storks  ! "  The  book  with  birds  is  his  greatest  pleasure. 
I  have  not  only  to  show  them  to  him,  but  to  imitate 
their  voices  and  singing.  He  is  highly  amused  by  the 
little  verses  I  sing  to  him;  as,  for  example,  "Zeislein, 
Zeislein,  wo  ist  dein  Hauslein."  He  remembers  such 
verses.     Also  Russian  words  are  pronounced.     I  observe 


DIARY  OF  THE  BARONESS  OF  TAUBE.       559 

for  the  first  time  his  efforts  to  tell  others  his  experience. 
I  had  shown  him  the  book  of  birds,  and  when  returning 
to  his  nurse,  he  told  her,  "  Mama,  pictures,  papager." 

At  nineteen  months  he  walks  independently  since  sev- 
eral weeks.  He  forms  sentences,  but  without  copula; 
for  example,  "Niana  fetches  roast  meat";  "Caro  out- 
side, wau,  wau";  "  Pappa,  pappa  city"  (Papa  went  to 
the  city ;  "  Mamma  sits  chair,"  etc. 

Some  words  make  him  nervous ;  the  refrain,  for  in- 
stance, of  the  "  Song  of  the  Goats."  If  I  say,  therefore, 
"Mark,  mark,  mark,"  he  looks  at  me  very  discontented 
and  runs  off,  sometimes  pressing  his  hands  over  my 
lips,  and  crying  for  help  and  his  nurse.  Every  play 
he  leaves  when  I  say,  "Therefore,  therefore."  Songs 
amuse  him  very  much,  especially  the  imitation  of  the 
voices  of  the  animals.  He  knows  them  all,  and  de- 
mands them,  saying,  kucka,  donkey,  kitty,  puss,  but 
wants  to  hear  only  the  first  lines,  and  then  change.  The 
other  day  he  heard  three  lines  from  "  The  little  Dog,  " 
and  when  I  said  "What  now?"  he  said,  "More  little 
dog.  " 

In  playing  with  his  dolls  ffrom  the  ark)  he  sings  to 
them. 

Twenty  months  old.  He  begins  now  to  use  the  word 
"yes "  as  an  affirmative  expression.  Asking  to  whom 
belong  these  feet,  he  says,  "  They  are  mine."  But  be- 
sides this  he  uses  no  pronouns.  Asked,  after  his  grand- 
pa's   departure,   where    he    was,    he    said    very   sadly, 


560  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

"Lost."  He  imitates  the  actions  of  the  adults.  Put- 
ting a  handkerchief  around  his  head,  he  says,  "Adolph 
stable  go  give  oath."  Saying  good  night,  he  went  to 
the  looking-glass,  and  kissing  it  repeatedly  he  said, 
"Good  night,  Adolph." 

Twenty-fourth  month.  He  knows  many  flowers,  their 
names  and  colors.  Pansies  he  calls  the  dark  flowers. 
He  catches  the  melody  and  the  rhythm  of  songs ;  is 
very  much  interested  in  a  German  love-song,  "  Du  Du 
liegst  mir  im  Herzen,"  and  sings  it  constantly  to  himself 
in  walking. 

Twenty-fifth  month.  Insects  and  beetles  have  the  same 
interest.  He  catches  one,  carries  it  in  the  room,  and 
says,  "Now  run,"  and  is  greatly  astonished  that  it  does 
not  run. 

Seeing  something  unpleasant,  as  a  man  with  a  hand  or- 
gan and  an  ape,  he  covers  his  face,  cries  and  says,  "  Ape 
ride  away."  Being  absent,  an  aunt  took  my  place,  and 
was  the  first  to  address  him  with  you  and  one's  self  with 
I,  The  consequence  was  that  he  addressed  himself  as 
you  in  the  first  and  used  /  in  the  second  person.  He 
tells  his  uncle  in  the  yard  that  there  is  an  awful  beautiful 
gentian.  He  makes  the  nurse  repeat  the  Latin  names  of 
the  flowers,  and  corrects  her  bad  pronunciation. 

Twenty-eighth  month.  He  makes  long  sentences,  and 
for  fun  puts  another  letter  on  the  beginning  of  a  word ; 
he  uses  very  big  words ;  he  even  changes  the  songs, 
exaggerating  the  condition;  as,  for  instance,  "fly  away," 


DIARY  OF  THE  BARONESS  OF  TAUBE.       561 

he  says,  "Fly  into  the  clouds."  K  Has  the  moon  wings?" 
he  asked.  I  had  been  sick  ;  recovering  and  kissing  him, 
he  said,  "  I  am  glad  dear  Jesus  made  you  well  again 
with  sealing  wax  from  the  writing-desk  "  (he  had  seen 
his  toys  mended  in  that  way) .  "  Where  is  dear  Jesus  ?  " 
he  asked.  "In  heaven?  Can  he  fly?"  It  is  very  diffi- 
cult to  give  him  religious  ideas.  "  Heaven  is  too  cold," 
he  says;  "my  nose  would  freeze."  He  asks  the  names 
for  everything,  and  refuses  to  eat  an  apple  before  he 
knows  the  name.  Sometimes  he  jokes  in  asking  con- 
stantly questions ;  Le  uses  the  names  of  the  days,  but 
without  any  understanding. 

The  child  does  not  know  what  is  true  and  what  not. 
I  can  never  depend  on  what  he  says,  except  the  account 
of  that  which  he  has  eaten.  Asking  him  if  he  saw  his 
father  on  horseback,  he  says,  "Yes,  he  went  deep  in 
the  forest,"  while  the  father  did  not  leave  the  house. 
Sometimes  he  denies  what  he  saw  or  did.  Asking  if  he 
said  good  night  to  his  father,  he  said,  "  No,"  while  he  did 
I  speak  with  the  nurse  in  the  park  about  some 
Finnish  parrots.  When  the  father  asked  the  boy  what 
he  saw,  he  said,  "  Finnish  parrots  with  golden  crowns." 
"Truth,"  says  the  baroness,  "has  to  be  taught  to  the 
child.  The  less  this  is  done,  the  easier  it  will  be  to 
instill  religious  conceptions,  that  is,  the  revelation  of 
wonders.  If  not,  one  must  be  prepared  to  answer  many 
questions,  which  is  not  quite  easy." 

In  the  twenty-ninth  month,  sad  stories  make  him  cry. 


562  CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

He  remembers  the  names  of  animals  easier  than  myself; 
makes  logical  conclusions ;  and  the  other  day,  when 
he  asked  for  something  useless,  and  I  asked  him  if  I 
should  not  also  fetch  the  moon  for  him,  he  said,  "No, 
that  cannot  be  done,  he  is  too  high  up  in  the  clouds." 

From  thirty  to  thirty-three  months  old  he  names  him- 
self often  "  Adolph,"  and  speaks  then  in  the  third  per- 
son of  himself.  The  right  use  of  the  pronouns  is  not 
understood.  He  often  says,  "  Your  mamma."  He  receives 
new  books.  The  black  and  gray  species  are  shown  to 
him  in  the  book  of  beetles.  The  latter  plays  now  a 
great  role  in  his  plays.  "  Why  is  he  called  the  sad 
one  ?  "  I  asked  him.  "  Because  he  has  no  children,"  he 
answered.  Perhaps  he  heard  this  sentence  somewhere. 
He  remembers  the  names  of  the  butterflies  in  the  pic- 
ture book  better  than  I.  This  power  of  memory  is  less 
in  his  fourth  year,  his  mental  powers  being  more  diverted 
in  conception  and  ideas. 

At  thirty-seven  months  old  he  sings  very  correctly 
some  melodies,  accompanied  with  the  piano,  but  if  not 
practiced  for  a  little  while  he  loses  the  capacity.  He 
speaks  a  great  deal,  and  his  language  and  sentences  are 
well  formed.  Some  mistakes  he  had  learned  from  his 
nurse.  He  still  cannot  distinguish  between  the  first  and 
second  person.  The  boy  of  six  years  hardly  counts  to 
six ;  numbers  remain  empty  words.  He  does  not  remem- 
ber the  succession  in  the  days  of  the  week,  nor  the  dif- 
ference between  to-day,  to-morrow,  and  yesterday. 


DIARY  OF  THE  BARONESS  OF  TAUBE.       563 

Preyer  says :  "  In  spite  of  the  shortening  of  the  fore- 
going diary,  I  thought  it  necessary,  as  it  presents  a 
valuable  commentary  on  my  Chapter  XIX.,  proving  how 
far  logic  and  reason  might  be  developed  in  the  child  of 
two  years  without  the  use  of  language.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  interesting  to  see  the  difference  between  this 
child  and  my  own."  Mr.  Preyer  consents  to  the  opinion 
that  the  child's  moral  food  should  consist  in  simple  truth, 
instead  of  incomprehensible  fairy  tales  and  wonders. 
Nature  offers  the  largest  number  of  treasures  to  instill  a 
religious  moral  conception,  and  refers,  as  I  did,  to  such 
simple  fables  as  written  by  iEsop,  Gillert,  Speckter,  and 
others. 

fX^   OF  THB        ^ 

'■ohivbrsity; 


CONSCIOUS   MOTHERHOOD. 

Or  The  Earliest  Unfolding  of  the   Child  in  the 
Cradle,  Nursery  and   Kindergarten. 


JBe  Emma  ZlBarweDel, 


The  following  extracts  give  the  opinions  of  distinguished  critics 
and  educators  of  a  new  work  by  one  of  America's  most  distinguished 
kindergartners.  Miss  Marwedel  has  for  many  years  been  a  most 
devoted  student  of  Froebel,  and  has  well  earned  the  preeminence 
which  Miss  Peabody  assigns  to  her  in  a  recent  letter:  "//  is  evi- 
dent to  me  that  you  are  to  put  the  capstone  to  the  structure  of  which 
Froebel  laid  the  foundation." 

To  those  who  have  known  of  the  author's  work  in  San  Francisco, 
or  who  have  heard  her  expound  the  principles  to  which  she  has  so 
earnestly  devoted  the  best  years  of  her  life,  it  is  not  necessary  to  say 
more  than  that  she  has  given  to  the  public  in  this  volume  the  re- 
sults of  her  best  thought  and  personal  experience  in  the  application 
of  true  educational  principles  to  the  early  unfolding  of  the  child's 
capacities. 

No  earnest  teacher  of  young  children,  no  mother,  and  no  stu- 
dent of  child-nature  can  afford  to  be  without  this  valuable  work.  It 
will  be  found  indispensable  to  the  true  educator  in  any  sphere,  and 
is  especially  commended  to  the  attention  of  normal  school  teachers 
and  students. 

The  book  consists  of  560  pp.  small  8vo.  Price,  $2.00  postpaid, 
to  any  address. 

This  is  a  book  that  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold  to  every  mother  of 
children,  and  to  every  prospective  mother  who  would  know  what  mother- 
hood involves,  and  who  would  properly  discharge  the  duties  of  a  mother. 
But  the  book  is  hardly  less  valuable  to  the  primary  teacher,  and  especially 
to  the  teacher  in  the  kindergarten. 

Miss  Marwedel  is  one  of  the  most  intelligent,  devoted  and  successful 
of  kindergartners,  as  her  work  in  San  Francisco  attests.  She  is  one  of 
the  earnest  and  devoted  lovers  of  her  kind,  whose  greatest  happiness  is 


found  in  doing  good  to  others.  There  seems  to  be  no  sacrifice  too  great 
for  her  to  make,  and  she  works  in  that  spirit  of  cheerfulness  and  moral 
earnestness  that  makes  her  own  enthusiasm  contagious.  Her  book  is 
filled  with  her  spirit.  If  every  mother  knew  of,  and  could  appreciate  the 
contents  of  this  book,  the  publishers  could  not  supply  the  demand  that 
would  be  made  for  it. —  Illinois  School  Journal. 

Miss  Marwedel  is  well  known  in  various  parts  of  this  country,  as  well 
as  in  England  and  Germany,  as  a  wonderfully  successful  kindergartner. 
This  book  will  be  invaluable  to  mothers  who  will  read  it  carefully  and  to 
kindergartners.  It  is  divided  into  two  parts.  Part  I.  is  called  "  The 
Earliest  Unfolding  of  the  Child  in  the  Cradle,  Nursery  and  Kindergar- 
ten." Part  II.  is]  called  "The  Soul  of  the  Child,"  and  is  made  up  of 
extracts  from  the  Book  of  Prof.  W.  Preyer,  containing  his  psycho-physio- 
logical investigations  on  his  own  child.  The  latter  part  will  be  interest- 
ing for  observant  mothers  to  use  in  comparing  the  development  of  their 
own  children  with  that  of  this  German  baby.  But  it  is  the  first  part  es- 
pecially that  appeals  to  the  common  sense  and  aspirations  of  those  who 
have  the  best  and  highest  interests  of  children  at  heart.  Miss  Marwedel 
speaks  from  wide  experience  and  thorough  education.  The  chapter  on 
"  The  Ideal  Nursery  "  is  alone  worth  the  price  of  the  book  in  the  way  of 
suggestion. — Christian  Register,  Boston. 

Froebel  and  others  think  that  instruction  should  begin  with  the  young 
child.  Miss  Marwedel  urges  that  it  must  begin  with  the  new-born  infant. 
Preyer  finds  that  the  infant  enters  the  world  with  embryonic  ideas  already 
formed,  and  many  tendencies  so  well  established  as  to  be  independent  of 
the  senses.  Among  the  subjects  considered  are  the  development  of  con- 
scious motherhood  into  its  ideal  "  Sacred  Motherhood,"  the  union  of  both 
sexes  in  ideal  parenthood,  the  child's  right  to  an  early  educational  unfold- 
ing beginning  at  the  cradle,  its  development  through  the  senses,  its  emo- 
tions aroused  by  its  earliest  conceptions  of  comfort  and  discomfort  lead- 
ing to  power  of  will  and  personal  activity,  and  this  again  developing  the 
reasoning  faculty  in  advance  of  speech,  the  gradual  steps  in  learning  to 
speak  and  how  to  use  speech,  the  development  of  selfhood  and  the  ideal 
nursery.  The  book  will  interest  teachers,  and  deserves  the  special  atten- 
tion of  physiologists,  psychologists  and  parents. — H.  B.  Black  well,  in 
Woman's  Journal,  Boston. 

Miss  Marwedel  has  for  some  years  occupied  a  very  prominent  place 
among  the  disciples  of  Froebel  in  this  country.  Her  purpose  in  the 
present  work  is  especially  to  awaken  the  interest  of  mothers  in  the  edu- 
cational importance  of  the  very  first  months  of  life  to  the  unfolding  of 
the  human  being.  The  facts  which  she  accumulates  as  to  the  effects  of 
prenatal  conditions  as  well  as  those  of  the  first  months  of  conscious  life 
are  deeply  significant. 

2 


******* 
Her  book  is  mainly  occupied  with  discussing  how  this  development, 
related  as  it  is  to  the  emotions,  the  intellect  and  the  will — the  whole 
mind  —  may  be  best  promoted.  The  methods  of  using  the  different  de- 
vices of  the  kindergarten  are  described,  and  especially  the  author's  circu- 
lar system  of  drawing,  sewing  and  paper-cutting,  and  the  playing  of  bot- 
any in  the  nursery. 

The  second  part  of  the  book  is  of  still  greater  interest.  This  is  the 
best  presentation  of  Prof.  Preyer's  work.  It  aims  to  be  strictly  induc- 
tive—  consists  indeed  of  a  record  of  observations  on  the  development  of 
his  own  children,  carried  on  systematically  from  the  day  of  birth.  These 
observations  and  the  inferences  founded  on  them  are  of  the  deepest  sig- 
nificance as  related  to  the  problems  of  philosophy  and  education. —  Wis- 
cousin  Journal  of  Education. 

11  What  will  be  the  practical  effect  of  the  book  ?  "  "  How  does  it  stand 
as  a  means  of  propagating  sound  doctrines  not  yet  universally  under- 
stood ? "  We  have  the  task  of  finding  many  commendable  doctrines  em- 
phatically expressed.  The  keynote  of  the  volume,  as  indicated  in  its 
title,  is  to  arouse  mothers  to  a  proper  appreciation  of  their  privileges  and 
duties.  Education  begins  in  the  cradle  :  the  child  is  not  one  being  in  its 
infancy  and  another  when  it  comes  under  school  influence.  There  is  a 
continuous  psychical  development  paralleled  by  a  physical  development, 
taking  place  independently  of  the  technical '  instruction  '  and  based  updn 
natural  laws.  These  laws  are  to  be  explicitly  unfolded,  and  are  to  form 
the  guiding  spirit  under  which  the  child  is  to  be  viewed  and  its  true  edu- 
cation directed  ;  to  reveal  the  all-important  truth  of  the  supreme  value  of 
these  early  years  of  life  when  habits  far  deeper  than  the  artificial  learn- 
ing of  later  years  are  laid  down,  when  the  most  difficult  actions  of  life  are 
learned,  when  the  child  is  passing  with  lightning  speed  through  the  his- 
tory of  the  race,  epitomizing  the  characteristics  of  remote  ancestors  as 
well  as  of  its  parents.  The  duty  of  this  sphere  of  education  falls  upon 
mothers :  it  is  to  be  rescued  from  the  hap-hazard  spirit  in  which  it  is  cul- 
tivated, to  be  made  a  serious  occupation  and  not  a  dilettanti  toy,  to  be 
recognized  as  the  true  mission  of  '  conscious  motherhood.'  The  advance- 
ment of  woman  is  to  consist  in  the  increase  in  dignity  and  importance  of 
the  duties  which  have  in  all  ages  fallen  to  her  share.  The  appeal  is  a 
noble  one  ;  and  while  not  always  made  with  a  full  view  of  the  many- 
sidedness  of  the  problem  involved,  is  presented  in  a  way  likely  to  attract 
the  audience  to  which  it  specially  addresses  itself. 

******* 
The  second  part  is  devoted  to  a  resit  me  oi  the  work  of  Preyer  on  child- 
mind.     The  work  of  selecting  the  abstracts  and  putting  them  into  good 
English  is  fairly  well  done. 

The  object  of  the  translation  is  to  arouse  an  interest  in  the  observa 

3 


tion  of  children,  and  in  this  good  cause  the  book  is  a  desirable  aid.  — 
Science,  New  York. 

In  "  Conscious  Motherhood,  or  the  Earliest  Unfolding  of  the  Child 
in  the  Cradle,  Nursery  and  Kindergarten,"  the  author,  Emma  Mar- 
wedel,  has  struck  with  a  strong  touch  the  very  key-note  of  all  educa- 
tion. "  Education,"  she  says,  "  must  begin  with  the  child  in  its 
cradle,  with  the  new-born  infant  and  its  parent."  Were  the  parents 
instructed,  the  road  would  be  open  for  childhood  to  happiness  and 
usefulness.  It  is  because  the  mothers  are  ignorant  or  shallow  too 
often,  and  the  fathers  absolute  fools,  that  the  babies  develop  into  unlovely 
or  vicious  maturity.  Miss  Marwedel  is  perhaps  the  most  distinguished 
living  authority  on  the  Kindergarten,  and  in  her  book  she  devotes  much 
space  to  an  account  of  Professor  Preyer's  investigations  as  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  soul  in  babies.  The  real  value  of  this  work  lies  in  the  light 
it  throws  upon  the  too-often  unknown  and  mysterious  shadowland  of  in- 
fancy. The  author  believes  that  little  children  have  inviolate  rights,  and 
that  these  rights  cannot  be  disregarded  with  impunity.  "  We  should  cul- 
tivate a  child,"  says  the  author,  "  as  we  cultivate  a  rose,  by  supplying  the 
very  best  conditions  of  growth,  and  then  respecting  its  individuality  in 
the  use  of  these  conditions."  How  many  of  us  give  as  much  thought  to 
the  development  of  the  children  God  has  given  us,  as  the  florist  gives  to 
the  culture  of  a  Jacqueminot  or  Mareshal  Neill  ?  Miss  Marwedel  gives 
many  practical  rules  for  the  education  of  the  child  at  the  infant  stage- 
It  were  well  indeed  for  the  future  generation  if  her  book  were  thought- 
fully read  by  all  parents. 

This  excellent  book  is  issued  in  attractive  form. —  Chicago  Evening 
Journal. 

Conscious  Motherhood  ;  or,  The  Earliest  Unfolding  of  the  Child 
in  the  Cradle,  Nursery  and  Kindergarten.  By  Emma  Marwedel,  supple- 
mented by  extracts  from  Prof.  W.  Preyer's  psycho-physiological  investi- 
gations on  his  own  child,  called  "  The  Soul  of  the  Child."  The  author  of 
this  volume  has  been  engaged  in  kindergarten  work  for  a  number  of  years. 
Her  inspiration  in  writing  the  book  was  sympathy  with  the  mother  in  her 
immeasurable  responsibility ;  the  condition  of  childhood's  rights  to  justice 
and  happiness ;  and  finally,  an  abiding  faith  in  the  mental  and  physical 
evolution  of  the  race.  Having  found  the  cradle  to  be  the  right  spot 
wherein  to  begin  education,  a  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  inhabitant 
of  the  cradle  was  found  to  be  necessary  to  that  beginning.  The  work  is 
the  most  profound  and  most  practical  on  kindergarten  and  mothers'  ear- 
liest work  with  children,  yet  published. — Minneapolis  Tribune. 


Extracts  from  Letters  received  by  Miss  Marwedel,  with 
permission  to  publish. 


I  feel  assured  that  in  the  hands  of  the  intelligent,  conscientious  moth- 
ers, it  will  do  much  good.  The  language  is  forcible  and  terse,  the  points 
are  well  selected  and  wisely  taken,  its  precepts  are  sound.  I  congratu- 
late Miss  Marwedel  on  this  beautiful  and  useful  volume. 

W.  N.  HAILMANN, 
Supt.  LaPorte,  Ind.,  Public  Schools. 

We  are  struck  with  both  the  importance  and  the  novelty  of  this  trea- 
tise, into  the  elaboration  of  which  Miss  Marwedel  brings  not  only  her 
large  personal  experience  and  untiring  zeal,  but  also  a  collation  of  histori- 
cal and  statistical  data,  and  professional  reports  and  opinions,  which  thus 
connected  assume  an  exceptional  interest,  and  when  published  in  proper 
form  could  not  fail  to  exert  a  very  beneficial  influence  upon  the  minds  not 
only  of  teachers,  but  especially  of  parents,  in  respect  to  the  management 
of  children  at  the  most  important  formative  period  of  their  lives. 

JOSEPH  LeCONTE, 
E.  W.  HILGARD, 
Professors  in  the  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  Cal. 

I  am  pleased  with  Miss  Marwedel's  development  of  elementary  draw- 
ing for  kindergarten  and  primary  work.  It  is  philosophically  correct,  and 
delightfully  practical.  Altogether,  her  modified  plan  of  work  seems  to 
me  to  be  a  real  and  solid  advance  and  improvement.  The  abstract  of  the 
work  on  Motherhood  indicates  a  manual  of  great  value. 

JOHN  SWETT, 
Prin.  Girl's  High  and  Normal  School,  San  Francisco. 

The  work  abounds  in  original  and  fruitful  ideas,  and  marks  the  com- 
mencement of  a  complete  revolution  in  the  instruction  of  children. 

F.  V.  PAGET,  San  Francisco. 

It  gives  us  great  pleasure  to  offer  our  hearty  endorsement  of  the  ad- 
mirable work  of  Miss  Emma  Marwedel  in  her  "  Conscious  Motherhood; 
in  the  Cradle,  the  Nursery  and  the  Kindergarten,"  and  to  urge  it  upon 
the  attention  especially  of  all  thoughtful  women,  parents  and  teachers. 
Not  the  least  of  its  merits  being,  in  our  view,  the  continuing  in  this  of  the 
most  popular  portions  of  her  translation  of  "  The  Soul  of  the  Child,"  by 
Preyer,  whose  wise  words  emphasize  points  too  long  neglected  in  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  broad  question  of  human  development.  Money  and  time, 
we  feel,  can  hardly  be  more  fruitfully  spent  than  in  making  one's  own  the 
ideas  of  these  eloquent,  inspiring  and  pregnant  pages. 

CAROLINE  M.  SEVERANCE, 
Los  Angeles,  Cal.  JEANNE  C.  CARR. 


{Extract  from  Prof.  Preyer's  Letter.} 
Dear  Miss  Marwedel: 

I  am  very  glad  that  the  investigations  I  made  for  years  on  nurselings 
and  my  own  child,  and  the  results  thereby  gained,  should  be  used  as  a 
foundation  for  an  early  education.  Froebel's  proceedings  in  that  direc- 
tion are  too  abstract,  in  my  opinion.  According  to  my  judgment,  great 
care  is  needed  against  educating,  instructing,  and  ruling  too  much,  as 
well  as  against  doing  too  little.  The  unfoldment  {das  Werden  lasseri) 
is  the  most  necessary.  In  the  first  place  (leaving  aside  the  worst  exam- 
ples), the  development  of  the  senses,  the  will,  and  the  reason,  should  be 
equally  carried  on  in  all  directions. 

I  am  anxious  to  see  your  book.  According  to  your  index  you  do  jus- 
tice to  these  principles,  by  not  following  blindly  the  common  kindergar- 
tens, though  claiming  to  be  founded  on  Froebel's  method. 

Respectfully  yours, 
yena,  Germany.  W.  PREYER. 

Miss  Marwedel's  book  is  the  work  of  a  genius  ;  and  I  regard  it  as  one 
of  the  most  valuable  contributions  ever  made  to  educational  literature. 

MARY  W.  KINCAID, 
Teacher  of  Normal  Class,  Girls'1  High  School^  San  Francisco. 

Dear  Miss  Marwedel  : 

The  chapters  of  your  book  which  I  have  seen  in  manuscript  have 
interested  me  very  much,  and  I  shall  look  for  their  publication  with  much 
pleasure.  Yours  very  truly, 

Boston.  ELIZABETH  LOMBARD. 

.  .  .  I  sympathize  with  you  heartily  in  the  importance  you  attach  to 
the  mother  element  in  child  culture  ;  properly  educated  herself,  the 
mother's  nursery  and  home  would  be  the  true  kindergarten  for  the  infant 
and  young  child ;  but  as  mothers  and  homes  are,  we  must  look  to  well- 
trained  kindergartners  to  perform  that  function  properly.     .     .     . 

Yours  truly,  HENRY  BARNARD. 

I  am  very  glad  to  tell  you  how  valuable  your  book  for  mothers  seems 
to  me,  and  your  plan  of  work  for  the  little  children  meets  a  real  need  in 
our  work.  I  am  eager  to  try  it  in  Mrs.  Shaw's  nurseries  and  kindergar- 
tens. Very  truly  yours, 

Boston.  LALIAH  B.  PINGREE. 

No  woman  in  the  country  is  more  competent  to  write  on  earliest  edu- 
cation and  the  kindergarten  than  Miss  Marwedel.  I  have  examined  her 
book,  and  believe  its  publication  will  be  serviceable  in  promoting  a  better 
knowledge  of  Froebel's  philosophy  and  methods. 

JAS.  MACALISTER, 
Supt.  Public  Schools,  Philadelphia. 
6 


I  take  this  opportunity  to  say  that  I  count  it  a  special  providence  that 
at  this  moment  Miss  Marwedel's  "  Conscious  Motherhood  "  is  published, 
as  it  completely  supplements  my  life-work,  with  an  illustrated,  practical 
application  of  Froebel's  true  theory  of  the  education  of  the  child,  estab- 
lishing the  fact  that  kindergarten  development  must  begin  in  the  home, 
and  that  the  prime  kindergartner  is  them  other,  whose  supreme  happi- 
ness and  perfection  consist,  in  conjunction  with  her  husband,  in  working 
intelligently  for  the  education  of  the  human  race. 

It  was  Miss  Marwedel  wh6,  in  1867,  first  introduced  me  into  Froebel's 
genuine  Kindergarten,  in  the  city  of  Hamburg,  and  inspired  me  with  the 
courage  to  make  it  the  main  object  of  the  remainder  of  my  life  to  extend 
the  kindergarten  over  my  own  country,  where  only,  as  Froebel  declared 
himself,  it  could  have  its  full  scope,  as  ours  is  the  only  nationality  that 
has  as  yet  recognized  individual  freedom  to  will  as  the  characteristic  first 
principle  of  humanity.  It  is  only  the  self-knowing  and  self-governing 
that  can  create  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people  ; 
and  the  self-government  of  the  child  must  flow  from  the  mutual  under- 
standing of  the  child  and  its  mother.  To  this  end,  Miss  Marwedel's 
book  guides  the  mother  and  her  assistants  in  the  kindergarten  and  in 
the  school. 

I  therefore  make  it  my  last  word  to  refer  my  readers  to  Miss  Marwe- 
del's first  book  for  mothers.  It  is  in  itself  a  key  to  the  whole  of  Froe- 
bel's philosophy,  whose  depths  she  seems  to  me  to  have  sounded  more 
thoroughly  than  any  of  his  disciples.  E.  P.  PEABODY,  Boston. 

I  have  read  with  some  attention  the  synopsis  of  the  contents  of  "  Con- 
scious Motherhood,"  and  a  work  of  this  kind,  which  will  present  these 
subjects  in  a  correct  and  clear  way,  should  be  welcomed  by  every  parent 
and  teacher.  F.  LOUIS  SOLDAN, 

Principal  Normal  School,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 


II 


RESOLUTION     PASSED    BY   THE     KINDERGARTEN     DEPARTMENT    OF    THE 
NATIONAL   EDUCATIONAL   ASSOCIATION. 

Resolved,  That  we  also  send  warmest  greetings  to  our  pioneer  Cali- 
ornia  co-worker  and  friend,  Miss  Emma  Marwedel,  whose  genius,  self- 
sacrifice  and  devotion  have  wrought  out  such  valuable  educational  achieve- 
ments for  the  kindergarten  cause.  Her  recent  excellent  and  practical 
work  on  "  Conscious  Motherhood,"  so  full  of  wise  thought  and  sugges- 
tion, we  recommend  to  every  household,  and  we  await  with  eager  expec- 
tancy the  publication  of  her  unique  and  valuable  Circular  System  of 
Drawing,  which  is  bound  to  mark  an  epoch  in  kindergarten  education. 

I  *    

The  Children  —  How  to  Train  Them. — Are  you  interested  in  the 
better  training  of  the  Children:    then  read  "Conscious  Motherhood,""  a 


book  that  every  mother  should  own  and  read.  It  will  repay  her  a  hun- 
dred fold  in  the  ease  and  comfort  with  which  she  will  be  able  to  perform 
her  duties. 

Are  you  interested  in  a  woman :  then  see  that  she  has  this  book. 

Are  you  interested  in  the  Home:  give  it  a  place  upon  its  library 
shelves. 

Are  you  interested  in  the  State:  make  its  mothers  and  fathers  more 
intelligent  concerning  the  training  of  the  children. 

Would  you  save  the  rising  generations  from  the  almshouse,  the  prison, 
the  insane  asylum?  train  the  child. 

Read  "  Conscious  Motherhood"  by  Miss  Emma  Marwedel,  America's 
most  eminent  kindergartner. 

It  contains  a  record  of  the  author's  own  experiences  and  observations ; 
also  a  summary  of  the  great  work  of  Wilhelm  Preyer,  on  "  The  Soul  of 
the  Child." 

Mrs.   E.   G.   Greene, 

Supt.  National  Kindergarten  Dept.  of  the  Women's  Christian 

Temperance  Union. 


Equally  emphatic  ■endorsement  has  been  received  by  Miss  Mar- 
wedel from  many  others,  whose  names  alone  it  will  be  sufficient  to 
mention.  Among  them  are :  Prof.  Howard  Sanderson,  Terre 
Haute,  Ind. ;  Alice  W.  Putnam,  Chicago  ;  Betty  Harrison,  Chicago  ; 
George  P.  Brown,  Bloomington,  111.  Frances  E.  Willard,  Chicago, 
Caroline  P.  Buell,  Chicago,  Mary  A.  Woodbridge,  Chicago,  respec- 
tively President,  Cor.  Secretary  and  Rec.  Secretary  of  the  National 
W.  C.  T.  U. ;  Esther  Pugh,  Chicago ;  D.  C.  Tillotson,  Topeka,  Kan- 
sas ;  Susan  E.  Blow,  St.  Louis ;  Sarah  A.  Stewart,  Philadelphia ; 
Prof.  G.  Stanley  Hall,  Worcester,  Mass.;  John  Eaton,  LL.D.,  Mari- 
etta, Ohio;  A.  B.  Stockham,  M.D.,  Chicago;  Clara  B.  Colby, 
Nebraska  ;  Prof.  Charles  Wilkinson,  President  of  the  Institution  for 
the  Deaf,  Dumb  and  Blind,  Berkeley,  California. 


D.    C.    HEATH  &   CO.,  Publishers, 

BOSTON.  NEW  YORK.  CHICAGO. 


J.  S.  LOCKWOOD,  146  Franklin  St 

BOSTON, 
Special  Agent  for  the  sale  of  this  Book. 


GAMES    AND    STUDIES 


IN   THE 


LIFE,  FORMS  AND  COLORS  OF  NATURE 

FOR   HOME   AND  SCHOOL. 


By   EMMA    MARWEDEL. 


It  is  now  admitted  by  the  best  educators,  that  that  development  of 
child  life  is  best  which  comes  as  the  result  of  spontaneous,  joyous 
contact  with  nature  through  the  self-activities  of  the  child.  The 
normal  child  thoroughly  enjoys,  and  works  hard  in  observing  and 
testing  the  objects  about  him,  the  pleasure  consisting  in  the  appre- 
ciation incident  to  the  acquisition  of  the  experience.  Labor  is  the 
means  of  all  true  culture.  The  free  self-activities  of  the  child  are 
the  media  through  which  the  teacher  must  work. 

As  in  the  earliest  years  of  child  life  his  self-activities  are  directed 
solely  toward  observation  of  natural  forces  and  qualities ;  so,  when 
the  period  of  so-called  education  begins,  the  same  methods  should 
be  pursued,  partly  because  they  are  the  natural  methods,  and 
partly  because  they  are  pleasurable  and  familiar  methods  to  the 
child. 

It  is  a  labor  in  which  he  delights.  This  labor  should  be  con- 
stantly a  study  of  nature ;  hence,  that  work  is  best  which  clings 
closest  to  nature.  This  was  primarily  Froebel's  ideal,  but  in  the 
later  development  of  the  Kindergarten  science  (and  everything  in 
this  nineteenth  century  is  tabooed  which  cannot  be  reduced  to  the 
syllogism  or  scientific  analysis),  this  phase  of  Froebel's  work  has 
been  much  neglected.  We  must,  therefore,  return  to  nature  through 
nature. 

Now  the  two  departments  of  nature  most  attractive  as  well  as 
accessible  to  the  child  are  plant  life  and  animal  life,  and  the  two 
most  prominent  features  of  these  are  form  and  color.  Hence,  the 
study  of  form  and  color  is  the  open  door  to  all  further  study  of 
life  and,  thence,  of  ethics. 


It  is  the  aim  of  Mme.  Marwedel's  adaptation  of  the  Froebel 
games  to  begin  the  educative  process  with  the  earliest  days  (not 
years)  of  child  life,  and  to  follow  the  natural  method  in  developing 
the  perceptive  powers  by  a  well  devised  scheme  of  plays,  intro- 
ducing at  once,  by  means  of  systematically  arranged  games,  con- 
ceptions of  color,  form  and  rhythmical  motion. 

This  system  is  the  result  of  many  years  of  practical  experience 
in  Kindergartens  and  schools. 

The  System  is  arranged  in  five  series : — 
Series  I.    Experiences  oi  form,  color,  movement,  number,  wholes  and 
parts  are  gained  by 

1.  Plays  with  6  worsted  balls,  if  inches  in  diameter,  in  the  6  standard 

colors. 

2.  Plays   with   ioo  wooden  ellipsoid  forms,  flattened  on  one  side  to 

prevent  rolling,  I  inch  long  and  perforated  ;  also  in  6  colors. 

3.  Plays  with  100  colored  wooden   rings   and   half  rings,  1,    i£  and  2 

inches  in  diameter. 

Series  II.  Comparative  perception  of  the  above  qualities  by  the  use 
of  34  sewing  cards,  3^  x  7  inches,  with  figures  stamped  for  worsted 
outlining. 

These  cards  lead  from  the  understanding  of  the  circle  (Series 
II.)  to  simple  conceptions  of  similarity  and  dissimilarity  in  botanical 
forms.  The  forms  are  based  on  the  circle,  and  lead  gradually 
through  fruits  and  flowers  to  leaves  and  roots.  They  are  directly 
introductory  to  Series  IV.  and  V. 

Series  III.  Mme.  E.  Marwedel's  System  of  Circular  Draw- 
ing. The  plays  of  Series  I.  developed  forms  of  beauty  and  in- 
vention, especial  prominence  being  given  to  the  circle.  While  this 
work  is  entirely  manual  it  should  be  accompanied  by  pencil  draw- 
ing. This  Series  is  a  system  of  drawing  based  on  the  circle  as  the 
simplest  of  symmetrical  forms.  The  studies  of  the  circle  are 
graded,  and  directions  given  how  each  is  to  be  colored,  with  a  view 
to  introduce  to  the  study  of  color  (Series  IV.)  through  manual  use 
of  crayons.  The  colored  crayons  of  Conte  (Paris)  are  by  far  the 
finest  in  Europe  or  America,  and  produce  exquisite  color  studies. 

Series  IV. — a.  For?n  Studies :  Four  charts,  18  x  20  inches  each,  show- 
ing large  figures  in  black  of  the  Cube,  the  Sphere,  the  Cylinder 
and  the  Sphere  divided ;  the  last  is  found  in  no  other  system. 
These  charts  connect  the  actual  forms  with  which  the  child  has 
been  familiar  with  their  linear  representation.  They  are  to  be 
drawn  by  the  pupil  from  the  original  objects  before  being  pre- 
sented in  these  charts. 


b.  Color  Charts  :  (i)  Four  charts,  18  x  20  inches,  showing  on  a  black 
background  the  three  primary  colors  in  circles  j£  inches  in  diam- 
eter, and  the  same  blended  into  secondary  colors ;  also  these 
secondary  colors  separately  and  their  composition  into  the  tertiary 
colors.  (2)  Four  charts  illustrating  shades,  blendings,  analysis 
and  synthesis  of  color.  These  last  are  the  finest  piece  of  litho- 
graphic work  ever  produced. 
Series  V.  Studies  in  Botany :  These  are  not  yet  issued,  but  will  supple- 
ment all  the  preceding  by  very  elementary  and  practical  talks  on 
botany  in  book  form,  and  are  to  be  accompanied  by  more  than 
one  hundred  colored  pictures,  true  to  the  size  and  color  of  the 
plant  forms.  These,  as  before,  are  to  be  studied  and  colored  from 
the  object. 


-  PRICKS 


Series  I.  Each  is  a  neat  box  with  lithographed  cover,  accompanied  by 
printed  descriptions  of  the  games,  and  several  plates  of  suggestive 
exercises. 

1.  Worsted  Balls,  6  in  one  box,  75  cents ;  per  100,  in  6  colors,  $2.00. 

2.  100  Ellipsoids,  in  box  complete,  $1.00;  per  500,  $1.75;  per  1,000, 
$3.00. 

;.  100  Rings,  etc.,   in  box  complete,    75  cents;   per  500,  $1.25;  per 
1,000,  $2.25. 
Series  II.    34  Sewing  Cards, in  box  complete,  40  cents;  per  500,  $1.85. 

ISeries  IV.     a.  Four  Form  Charts  :    Sphere,  20  cents  ;    Cube,  20  cents, 
Cylinder,  20  cents ;  Sphere  divided,  25  cents ;  the  four  charts,  75 
cents.     Mounted  on  heavy  boards,  neatly  bound,  to  hang  on  the 
wall,  $1.15. 
b.  Color  Charts  :  (1)  Four  primary  and  secondary  colors,  $1.00:  each, 
30  cents.    (2)  Four  analysis,  etc.,  $2.25  ;  each,  60  cents.     Color 
Charts,  mounted,  $3.85. 
All  the  charts  above,  $3.60 ;  or  mounted,  $5.00. 
A  few  copies  of  Mme.  MarwedePs  "  Poetry  and  Studies  in  the  Life, 
Forms,  and  Colors  of  Nature,"  descriptive  of  the  aims  and  methods 
of  the  Series,  are  in  stock,  and  will  be  sent,  postpaid,  on  receipt  of 
25  cents. 


D.  C.   HEATH  &  CO.,   PubL 

BOSTON,  NEW  YORK,  CHIQ8raV>?_    _„_"** 

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